Not really. Confiscating the illegal earnings is not part of the punishment, the fine is just the extra part.

What?! He did the work, likely diligently and with aplomb. He performed excellent work, in exchange for money.

And then a third party, the government, who had no part in this, took money from him. No matter how it was assessed, was a fine.

I disagree. I don't like the their govt rules, and I especially condemn their lack of rule of law and selective enforcement, but the fine is 200, and the rest is the confiscation of illegal earnings.

I do wonder where the employer is in this picture. Who are they? Do they not protect their employee? It's well known that VPN and GitHub is banned in China, did they make this netizen use the VPN and the illegal service knowingly? Did the netizen use these knowing it's illegal, or were they misled to believe they have legal access? Was the employee a remote contractor of sorts?

There is a difference, at least in China. Confiscation of properties can happen immediately while the fine has to be paid later. On the contrary, there was another piece of ridiculous news in China: in year 2022, an old farmer profited 14 yuan in buying (from a neighbour) then selling 35kilo of celery, which were later found to contain exceeding amounts of pesticide. His profit was confiscated, and he was fined 50K yuan! He never paid the fine since he couldn't afford it. The fine was doubled. Eventually the fine was waived when the law enforcement agency sought a property confiscation in lieu of the fine through the courts.