About the Legality of "Circumvention"#
Although I am not a legal expert, I will briefly explain.
According to the "Administrative Measures for the Protection and Management of International Networking Security of Computer Information Networks" in the National Legal Database National Legal Database (flk.npc.gov.cn), it is stipulated that:
Article 5: No unit or individual shall use international networking to produce, copy, access, or disseminate the following information:
(1) Inciting resistance and undermining the implementation of the Constitution, laws, and administrative regulations;
(2) Inciting subversion of the state power and overthrowing the socialist system;
(3) Inciting the division of the country and undermining national unity;
(4) Inciting ethnic hatred and discrimination, undermining ethnic solidarity;
(5) Fabricating or distorting facts, spreading rumors, and disrupting social order;
(6) Promoting feudal superstition, obscenity, pornography, gambling, violence, murder, and terrorism, inciting crime;
(7) Openly insulting others or fabricating facts to defame others;
(8) Damaging the credibility of state organs;
(9) Other acts that violate the Constitution, laws, and administrative regulations.
Therefore, regardless of whether "circumvention" is illegal, engaging in the above-mentioned activities is illegal!!!#
Next, let's discuss the issue of whether "circumvention" is illegal:#
In most notifications regarding the illegality and punishment of circumvention, without exception, they refer to the Provisional Regulations of the People's Republic of China on the Administration of International Networking of Computer Information Networks revised on May 20, 1997, which states in Article 6:
Computer information networks must directly connect to the international network using the international entry and exit channels provided by the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications' national public telecommunication network. No unit or individual may establish or use other channels for international networking.
However, many sources state that there is a supplementary clause to this administrative regulation, which refers to the aforementioned international entry and exit channels as the physical channels used for international networking. I have been unable to find the source of this statement.
But I have found a breakthrough.
In the Wikisource, there is a passage stating that this is stipulated in the "Implementation Measures for the Provisional Regulations of the People's Republic of China on the Administration of International Networking of Computer Information Networks" issued by the State Council. Note that this passage includes the phrase "Implementation Measures," which is not mentioned in the previous Provisional Regulations.
Do not underestimate these four words, as they contain significantly different content. The "Implementation Measures" stipulate that the international entry and exit channels refer to the physical channels used for international networking.
But another problem arises. Wikisource is not a professional legal document, and I have made great efforts to find out whether the State Council really has this regulation.
But hard work pays off. I found this regulation in the 1998 Issue No. 7 of the State Council Gazette of the People's Republic of China (General No.: 899):
Article 3: The following terms used in these measures shall have the following meanings:
(3) International entry and exit channels refer to the physical channels used for international networking.
Therefore, based on this legal provision and the characteristics of VPN, which establishes a virtual private network on the existing international entry and exit channels regulated by the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications to achieve encrypted communication of information data, I believe that circumvention is not currently an illegal act.