Entrepreneur and philanthropist Sun Dawu’s fair and sometimes altruistic practices made many “loyal” party members and government-run operations look bad. Worst of all, these honest practices took many business opportunities out of the hands of people in power. He had also refused to pay bribes.
In 2003, he was arrested and charged for misusing funds. He was convicted and sentenced to prison even though there was no evidence of guilt on his part. Thousands of farmers protested, leading to his release on a “suspended sentence”. Having joined the WTO, China was well on the path of 改革开放 then and eager to fit in on the world stage.
In 2015, Sun criticised the brutal crackdown on human rights lawyers in China (709 crackdown).
Sun was arrested again in 2020 and slapped with a litany of frivolous charges. It’s a different China this time. Everyone in China was afraid of “trouble”. Other countries were afraid of trade sanctions.
When they couldn’t find any evidence to convict Sun, they rounded up his entire family, his staff members and held them hostage to make him confess. In July 2021, Sun Dawu was sentenced to 18 years in prison.
How can China be in such a mess? How is it possible that you can’t find good people out of the 1.4 billion. Well, here’s your answer.