The Chinese government have sentenced a 67-year-old billionaire, Sun Dawu to 18 years in prison with a fine of 3.11m yuan (£345,000).
Sun Dawu, a Chinese billionaire, is a pig farmer and an agricultural mogul, he is the founder of the Dawu Agricultural and Animal Husbandry, Group.
It was gathered that the billionaire was sentenced for crimes including “provoking trouble”, which observers believe was politically motivated.
Before his sentence, the billionaire was an outspoken supporter and friend of Chinese political dissidents, on the 11th of November Sun was arrested together with other 20 people, including his wife, two sons, and daughters-in-law.
The court in Gaobeidian, near Beijing, said Sun was guilty of crimes including “gathering a crowd to attack state organs”, “obstructing government administration” and “picking quarrels and provoking trouble”, a catch-all term often used against human rights figures and dissidents.
An information outlet in the country ‘China Change’ said during pre-trial, Sun described himself as an “outstanding Communist Party member”, and denied many of the accusations against him, including those related to misusing funds.
The billionaire however admitted to making mistakes, including posting messages online and unspecified mistakes over some “land issue”.
Some human rights organisations including the Chinese Human Rights Defenders (CHRD) say the prosecution is an apparent retaliation for Sun’s long support and friendships with those speaking against the Chinese government.
“When the government violates its own laws in order to silence those with the means to support commitments to social justice and official accountability, it profoundly weakens the vitality of China’s economy and its leaders’ promises to rule by law,” said Ramona Li, a senior researcher at CHRD, at the beginning of Sun’s trial this month.
“The way they’re investigating me now is making those close to us suffer and those who hate us rejoice. I wish to take the charges upon myself, even if they’re severe, in exchange for the release of others. We are people who have made contributions to society,” Ramona Li added.
The sentencing of Sun Dawu comes amid a recurrent crackdown in recent months on private businesses and entrepreneurs in China.
Tech firms CEOs like Jack Ma’s Ant Group and Alibaba have been investigated and their activities closely monitored and questioned, some have been ordered to downsize or they risked getting fined.
In September, Ren Zhiqiang, a former real estate mogul who criticised Xi’s handling of the pandemic in an online essay, was jailed for 18 years on corruption charges.
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