With due respect, I don't think you understand Chinese. The bolded part clearly stated that this applies to CIVILIANS, not government.
Let me translate what you posted to English:
永樂二年正月，禁民下海。時福建瀕海居民，私載海舡，交通外國，因以為寇。郡縣以聞，逐下令禁
民間海船。原有海船者，悉改為平頭船，所在有司防其出入。
First month of the second year of Rongle, the
civilians are forbid to trade overseas: The coastal civilians in Fujian province are discovered supplying foreign pirates using private ships. The province is made aware of this fact and consequently ordered all civilian sea-borne ships to be grounded. The old sea vessels will be reduced to flat boats and the coastal guard shall take alert to prevent farther sea access.
[永樂實錄 卷二十七]
“若姦豪勢要及軍民人等，擅造三桅以上違式大船，將帶違禁貨物下海，前往番國買賣,潛通海賊，同謀結聚，及為嚮導劫掠良民者，正犯比照己行律處斬，仍梟首示眾，全家發邊衛充軍。其打造前項海船,賣與夷人圖利者，比照將應禁軍器下海者，因而走洩軍情律，為首者處斬，為從者發邊充軍”
[大明律]
Several criminals (implied to be powerful and influential individuals) forcefully coerce soldiers and civilians into making ship(s) with more than three masts. They are planning to ferry forbidden goods (implied to be weapons) over to foreign countries and sell them to pirates, as well as collaborating with pirate, so (the pirate) can attack the civilians. The main criminal is beheaded and the head is displayed to the populace according to the law, the family of the criminal is exiled (to serve in the army). Those who assisted in the construction of the ship in order to sell (weapons) to the foreigners for the profit, are punished under the crime of: selling restricted weapons and leak of military intelligence. The head criminal is beheaded and the rest are exiled.
So, I fail to see counter point to my post from these information.
Quoting from wikipedia, under the term literary inquisition:
"Qing Dynasty
The rulers of the Manchu-led Qing Dynasty are particularly notorious for their use of literary inquisitions. The Manchus were an ethnic minority who had defeated the Han Chinese-led Ming Dynasty; as such, they were sensitive to public sentiments towards them.[3] Writers and officials usually took the stance of drawing distinctions between the Han Chinese and the Manchus; the latter were traditionally viewed as barbarians in Han Chinese culture. However, while the Manchus were in charge, writers resorted to veiled satire.[4] According to Gu Mingdong, a specialist in Chinese literature and intellectual thought,[5] the Manchus became almost paranoid about the meanings associated with the Chinese characters for 'bright' and 'clear', 'Ming' and 'Qing' respectively.[3] One inquisition was the "Case of the History of the Ming Dynasty" (明史案
in 1661–1662 under the direction of regents (before the Kangxi Emperor came in power in 1669) in which about 70 were killed and more exiled.[6]
Under the Qing Dynasty, literary inquisition began with isolated cases during the reigns of the Shunzhi and Kangxi emperors, and then evolved into a pattern. There were 53 cases of literary persecution during the reign of the Qianlong Emperor.[7] Between 1772 and 1793, there was an effort by the Qianlong Emperor to purge "evil" books, poems, and plays. He set out to get rid of works by Ming loyalists whom he believed were writing subversive anti-Qing histories of the Manchu conquest. The scale of the destruction cause by this "literary holocaust" is uncertain due to gaps in the imperial archives, however as many as 3,000 works may have been lost. An estimated 151,723 volumes were destroyed by the inquisition in this period. Amongst the works subject to this treatment were books considered disrespectful towards the Qing emperors or previous ethnic minority dynasties that could be viewed as analogous to the Qing. From 1780 onwards, plays could also be destroyed if they were vulgar or contained anti-Manchu material. Writers who criticised the Qing dynasty could expect to have their entire work erased, regardless of content.[8] The inquisition was often used to express local ambitions and rivalries that had little to do with the ruler's own political interests. It thus generated interclass, as well as intraclass, warfare. For example, commoners could lay charges against scholars.[9]
1753: The Qianlong Emperor's frequent tours of Jiangnan were partly funded by local governments, and therefore indirectly by the local people. One local official by the name of Lu Lusen, using a higher ranking minister's name, Sun Jiajin, sent a memorial to the emperor, pleading with him to stop the tour for the sake of the local people. The text achieved widespread popular support. Eventually Lu Lusen was sentenced to death by slow slicing for sedition, his two sons were beheaded, and more than a thousand relatives and acquaintances were either executed, exiled, or thrown into jail according to the notion of "collective responsibility" that automatically applied in cases of sedition.[10]
1755: A Provincial Education Commissioner named Hu Zhongzao (胡中藻 wrote a poem in which the character qing 清, the name of the dynasty, was preceded by zhuo (浊, which means "murky" or "muddy". The Qianlong Emperor saw this and many other formulations as the taking of a position in the factional struggle that was taking place at the time between the Han Chinese official Zhang Tingyu and the Manchu official Ertai, who had been Hu's mentor. Hu was eventually beheaded.[11]
1778: The son of a poet from Jiangsu called Xu Shukui (徐述夔 had written a poem to celebrate his late father. The Qianlong Emperor decided that the poem was derogatory towards the Manchus, and ordered that Xu Shukui's coffin be unearthed, his corpse mutilated, all his children and grandchildren beheaded.[12]
Cai Xian (蔡顯 wrote a poem No colour is true except for red, alien flowers have become the kings of flowers to show that he preferred red peonies over purple peonies, and stated that the 'red peony is the king of peonies' and 'peonies of other colours are aliens'. The family name of the Ming Dynasty emperors is Zhū (朱, which also means 'red' in Chinese. The Qianlong Emperor then accused Cai Xian of attempting to attack the Manchus by innuendo and ordered Cai's execution."
On the off-chance you do understand Chinese, you may also search "文字狱", for much more detailed Chinese record on the matter.
