Outspoken Chinese entrepreneur, Sun Dawu, jailed for 18 years for 'provoking trouble'

In the wake of months of detention, Sun Dawu, a 66-year-old businessman with a reputation for being an affront to the Communist Party, was formally charged on several charges. Since November, Dawu, who has been detained in Hebei, China's northern province, is accused of unlawful fundraising and hindering state service, among other charges. According to an arrest notice released on Saturday by one of his lawyers, he was formally arrested on Wednesday.

Efforts to suppress dissent by the private sector

Dawu's detention comes amid broader efforts by Chinese President Xi Jinping to silence corporate leaders and bring China's private sector under control. Dawu has been a vociferous critic of Jinping, and his crackdown on civil society. A handful of high-profile tycoons have recently been sanctioned by Beijing.

Last year, Ren Zhiqiang, a retired real estate billionaire who had labeled Xi a clown, was sentenced to 18 years in prison. Following Jack Ma's criticism of Chinese officials in October, his e-commerce firm Alibaba and financial technology giant Ant Group became targets, and Ma had maintained an unusually quiet profile since then.

Dawu's alleged crimes have been kept under wraps by authorities. In November, he and 24 others were arrested over a land dispute between his company and state-owned property. The 66-year-old businessman and others were being held on suspicion of "provocation, disturbing production and operation, and other criminal crimes," police said at the time. He is being held at a detention centre in Gaobeidian, Hebei. Authorities in Gaobeidian did not respond to a request for comment.

Dawu is a former member of the People's Liberation Army and worked for China's state-owned Agricultural Bank before launching his own company, Dawu Agricultural and Animal Husbandry Group, which now employs thousands. He also hosted conferences organized by liberal and reform-minded organizations. Long after dissidents became politically poisonous, he maintained relations with them.

When human rights lawyers were arrested, he offered to pay for their defence. He also posed a "tremendous challenge" to the current system, said Liu Xiaobo, a Nobel laureate and advocate for human rights who died in captivity in 2017 because he was both courageous and had the means to seek reform. “The government,” Liu stated, “will definitely go after him with murky laws.”