A large portion of Haitang writers who were targeted by this crackdown were sentenced for as long as four years and six months in prison with a 1,845,800 yuan fine, the equivalent to over $250,000 USD. While the police in Anhui targeted writers depending on how much income they had made from Haitang, a Taiwanese platform for Danmei and Baihe, the Lanzhou authorities primarily targeted writers who made little to no royalties from their stories and were out of their jurisdiction. Most fines for these writers ranged from 100,000 yuan ($14,000 USD) to 1,000,000 yuan ($140,000 USD), putting even more financial strain on already impoverished writers.

Many of the writers targeted in this crackdown can no longer obtain regular jobs to do now possessing a criminal record. In order to pay off these exorbitant fines, they’ve resorted to taking out predatory high-interest loans that have left them in crippling debt as a result. Within the last several months, authors reported to having their bank accounts frozen, some of which have already had their cases “concluded” and were no longer under investigation. This left these authors unable to access their earnings from Haitang and other sources of income, leaving them financially stranded.

The author Save Danmei Authors is trying to save is a queer and disabled Danmei author who owes about $50,000 USD in fines and faces incarceration if she cannot pay them. Due to how severely disabled she is, she primarily made her living off of writing stories on Haitang. If she is incarcerated, she will not survive.