Sun Dawu vs the state: a cautionary tale for China’s private sector?
- The outspoken entrepreneur was detained in an early-morning police swoop, along with members of his family and company executives
- There’s no official word on the reason he was taken into custody but his business has been embroiled in a feud with a state farm
Sun, the founder of Dawu Agricultural and Animal Husbandry Group, was among a number of people taken into custody early on November 11 on suspicion of crimes such as “picking quarrels and provoking trouble” and “sabotaging production and operations”, the Gaobeidian public security bureau said in a brief statement that day.
The bureau did not specify how many people were detained or why Sun, whose company was not registered in Gaobeidian, was taken away by officers from the county-level city.
Beijing-based China News Weekly reported two days later that 28 people had been detained, including Sun, Sun’s wife, his two sons, his two daughters-in-law as well as Dawu executives. Only four were released on bail within 48 hours, the report said.
On Wednesday, a social media account run by magazine Business 2.0 published three police detention documents for Sun’s two daughters-in-law and Dawu’s chief financial officer. According to the documents, all three were held on suspicion of “illegally appropriating public deposits”.
In addition, a bail request for Sun’s wife, Liu Huiru, was rejected by the police, according to the report.
There were no details about others taken into custody.
Provincial authorities have not provided any details about Sun’s case in the last two weeks and the Gaobeidian police declined to comment further when contacted by the Post. The Gaobeidian Communist Party branch also declined to comment, as did a lawyer for Liu.