China can be involved in espionage, but cracks down on people buying crypto?

So, this story is probably going to be a few days old and I spotted it on Mastodon. I really don’t understand the point of this.

We know that the Chinese are involved in campaigns that might be considered questionable. If you don’t believe me, you can listen to Monday’s Cyber Wire Daily.

This article is titled Chinese man sentenced to 9 months in prison for buying $13K in USDT is the article.

You also have been involved in what has been known as “The Great Firewall”

wikipedia on great firewall

That was definitely talked about in articles, blogs, and podcasts including but not limited to Security Now and possibly others.

If this great firewall still exists, the Chinese still can’t access whatever the government doesn’t want them to do, and was I not mistaken that they blocked VPN access?

Check this article out, and let us know what you think.