Starting on November 11, Sun Da Wu’s name began to brush the Internet. On that day, Sun Da Wu, founder of the Da Wu Group, one of China’s 500 largest private companies, and more than 20 company executives were suddenly arrested by local police on charges of “provoking trouble” and “disrupting production and operations.
The arrest was carried out by heavily armed SWAT officers, and a team was stationed at Da Niu to take control.
The Southern Weekend quoted an anonymous employee of the Da Niu Group as describing how, around 1:00 a.m. on the 11th, six buses carrying SWAT officers with assault rifles, police dogs and ladders broke into Da Niu’s new residence in Lang Wuzhuang Village, Gaolin Village, Xushui District, Baoding, Hebei Province. This is the self-built community of the Da Wu Group, “where many Da Wu employees live.
The Southern Weekend said that the first group of police took away Sun and his wife, their two sons and two daughters-in-law, and other executives; the second group took away leaders of the subsidiary. Sun Dawu’s young grandson was left at home with the police to watch over him and keep the nanny away.
The anonymous employee interviewed asked the police why the leaders were taken away. Answer: Wait for notice. The employee said that he “noticed that some of the doors had been forced open”. He also learned that during the early morning arrests, nearby communication signals were blocked “until after the people were taken away by the police.
Mr. Zhang, who is based in Hubei province, is in charge of liquor promotion for the Da Wu Group. He told the Voice of America that he couldn’t get any information about the group and could only read it on the Internet.
Mr. Du is also a promoter of the Noodle Group’s products in the field. He told the Voice of America that he was “completely barred from commenting on the Sun Da Wu case.
Three days later, the Red Star News said, an employee of the security department of the Da Niu Group told the police that after the arrest of Sun Da Niu and others, a government task force had been stationed at Da Niu Group’s Da Niu Hospital and Da Niu School; the human resources and finance departments of Da Niu Group and its subsidiaries were also under police control.
In response, an online commentator named “Wang HaoXuan” said that the government’s presence at the DaNu Group “is a shocking news.
Another commentator, the noon group was forced to take over, “or set a dangerous precedent”; even if the shareholders have legal disputes, and the company should be clear, “even for the development of the noon group, the government should not take over, even if it is to take over the business should not”; and, “to allegedly provoke trouble and sabotage production and operation crimes, the company executives ‘even pot’, not only in Hebei Province rare, in the country is rare”.
Sun Dawu is the “second coming” of the company.
On November 11, 2020, the public security bureau of Gobeidian City, Hebei Province, released a message saying: “After investigation, Sun Dawu and others from Hebei Dawu Agricultural and Animal Husbandry Group Co. Currently, the case is under investigation.”
Chinese exile lawyer Teng Biao told VOA that provocations are a pocket crime in China’s criminal code, often used against rights activists and dissidents; their definition is vague, and many actions that do not constitute a crime are put under this charge.
An online commentator named Yuan Xiang said that Sun Dawu is “such an entrepreneur that many people wouldn’t have known about him if he hadn’t been arrested this time.
Wang Yingguo, a businessman and civil rights activist who knows Sun Dawu well and is in regular contact with him, told VOA that the police action stemmed from a land dispute between Lang Wuzhuang Village, where Sun Dawu lives, and Xushui State Farm.
Wang said, “The fact is that there was a land dispute between Lang Wuzhuang Village and the Xushui State Farm.”
According to public information, in 1963, Lang Wuzhuang Village handed over 740 mu of land to Xushui State Farm to cultivate. In fact, the latter occupied more than 2,000 mu of land. The two sides argued over the land rights for several years. Later, Lang Wuzhuang leased the land to Da Wu Plantation Company.
On June 21 and August 4 of this year, two clashes broke out between Dawu Group personnel and Xushui State Farm personnel. In the second conflict, the Xushui District Public Security Department intervened and a physical altercation occurred with the staff of the Da Wu Group. This was the “6-21 incident” and the “8-4 incident”.
“In the early morning hours of August 4, Xushui State Farm personnel attempted to demolish the Da Wu Group’s office in Lang Wuzhuang Village without permission, but Da Wu employees prevented them from doing so, and the two sides clashed. The police in Xushui District intervened, and dozens of Da Wu workers and villagers were injured.
Sun Dawu has since said in an interview that the police were clearly biased in favor of the Xushui State Farm, and “decided that they were owned by the state, but in fact they were a group seeking personal gain in the name of the state.
Wang Yingguo said that, in fact, Sun Dawu is in the middle of mediation; however, “even if Sun Dawu himself has a land dispute, it’s just an economic dispute, not rising to the level of a criminal offense”.
Wang said that just recently, when contacted by video, he specifically advised Sun Dawu, “I mainly advised him to stop all expanded reproduction and keep a low profile,” he said.
Wang said to the Voice of America, Sun Dawu these years development momentum is very strong, has become an independent kingdom; his stadium can accommodate 20,000 people, Dawu hospital has at least 16 floors, marble decoration, very luxurious; Lang Wuzhuang village villagers and Dawu Group employees as long as to pay one yuan a month, do not spend money to see a doctor, do a B ultrasound and blood test for a full medical examination as long as 10 yuan …… these popular benefits impact the authority of the local government.
Wang also revealed that the articles posted by Sun Dawu in his circle of WeChat friends all centered on the idea of democracy. Moreover, these people, including Ren Zhiqiang and Hu Dehua, often meet at Sun Dawu’s spa hotel, which is his relaxing resort. It is conceivable that they would chat together in private, which in the eyes of the authorities would have been intolerable and even seen as anti-party. Although the authorities could find no evidence, they would try to nip the possibility in the bud,” Teng Biao’s lawyer said.
Lawyer Teng Biao said: “There is an important article in the criminal law that an act must be socially harmful in order to constitute a crime …… However, almost all the cases of political prisoners and prisoners of conscience, and cases in which human rights activists have been sentenced, refer to some speech and human rights activities as provocations. In fact, they do no harm to society and even promote the progress of the legal system and human rights in society.”
Teng Biao pointed out that China does not have an independent judicial system, and that judges adopt whatever law enforcement officials say, and that “the public prosecutor and the law are all one.
Previously jailed for borrowing money from the private sector for businesses
The last time Sun Dawu was “on the case” was in 2003. At the time, Sun Dawu’s business was expanding, but had no access to bank loans, so the Dawu Group from January 2000 to May 2003, to issue IOUs to local villagers on terms higher than the bank’s deposit rate for the same period, a total of 180 million yuan.
Wang Yingguo said that this was a legally protected private lending behavior.
However, Sun Dawu was subsequently arrested by the local public security department on charges of illegal fundraising, and his two younger brothers, the vice chairman and general manager of the Dawu Group, as well as the finance director, were also detained by police in connection with the case.
After the case was reported in the media, the debate over Sun’s guilt or innocence sparked widespread concern in the community and controversy even in legal circles.
At the time, dozens of domestic and international news organizations, including the official Xinhua News Agency and People’s Daily, as well as the Washington Post, the Sydney Herald, and Libération France, “swarmed into the Da Ng Group for interviews.
The famous “Yanhuang Chunqiu” magazine also published an article “to say ‘Sun Da Wu case'”, which mentioned, “the People’s Bank of China Xushui County Branch” to Xushui County Public Security Bureau to build a case to investigate the noodle group, the charge is “I branch of the preliminary found that the company is suspected of disguised public deposits”.
Wang Yingguo said, Sun Da Wu expressed dissatisfaction, because he issued a loan IOU, not a fund-raising note, which is not the same thing at all. Wang said, “Moreover, there was no dispute between the borrowers, and Sun Dawu returned the money as scheduled. Even at the time of the return, the villagers wanted to continue lending money to the Da Wu group because the returns were good and the credit was good. However, Sun Dawu no longer dared to borrow any more.”
In the end, Sun was sentenced by the then Xushui County People’s Court to three years’ imprisonment, four years’ probation and a fine of 100,000 yuan for the crime of illegally absorbing public deposits; the Da Wu Group was also fined 300,000 yuan.
Prior to his conviction, Sun Dawu had been in jail for five months. During that time, he allegedly “read about 50 books on literature, history, and philosophy, including 15 general histories of China and two books of English exercises, and went through almost all the books available in the detention center.
In an interview with financial journalist Zhang Zhiqing after his release from prison, Sun Dawu identified himself as “a clean person,” but said he was sadly “isolated, not socially compatible, and not compatible with the environment. I understand the unspoken rules, and if I don’t adapt, I will continue to do what I do. I can be successful, but it won’t end well.
Wang Yingguo told VOA that Xu Zhiyong, the lawyer who defended Sun Dawu, has been behind bars for the second time. Sun Dawu has publicly praised Xu Zhiyong.
Sun Da-Wu and the Da-Nu Group
Yuan Xiang said Sun Dawu was born in Lang Wuzhuang Village, so he is a farmer; he created his own business, with 9,000 employees, no doubt is also an entrepreneur; he is keen to read, chasing the Peach Blossom Garden, with the feelings of intellectuals, to realize the dream of villagers living in peace in Dawu City, can afford to live in a house, afford to go to the hospital, children can afford to go to school, so he is also an intellectual; he set up a separate enterprise supervisory board ( He created a new type of enterprise system of “private, public governance and sharing” that is constitutional for private enterprises and republican for labor and capital, so he is also a thinker and reformer.
He is a billionaire, but he lives an ascetic life; he should be chasing profits as his first priority, but he runs free peasant technical schools and middle schools that lose money; he knows the potential rules of government and has no political resources in his hands, but he refuses to share the dust with the light.
Attorney Teng Biao said, “Sun Dawu is one of the few Chinese entrepreneurs who supports the rule of law and human rights.”
Liu Xiaobo wrote a long article on the case of Sun Dawu in 2003, saying, “Once the authorities discovered the growing number of peasant entrepreneurs like Sun Dawu, especially Sun Dawu’s entrepreneurial conscience, which both despises the trading of power and money and has the courage to speak out, both in terms of economic resources and organizational capacity, but also in terms of fighting for the rights of peasants to get out of poverty, and in terms of constitutional democracy, he was able to make the case for the rights of peasants. The call for political reform will pose a huge political challenge to the current system and will likely lead to a new type of peasant leader, so the authorities will inevitably have to use ambiguous laws to fix it, making Sun Da Wu and his Da Wu Group victims of an “evil rule of law.”
10 years later, in 1995, the company was one of the 500 largest private companies in China. Today, the Group employs more than 9,000 people, has a headquarters covering 5,000 acres, fixed assets of 2 billion yuan, and an annual output value of more than 3 billion yuan. Today, under the jurisdiction of 28 independent subsidiaries, a joint venture company of the DAWU Group, is the provincial agricultural industrialization management of key leading companies.
According to an analysis by some netizens, the CCP believes that the development of private enterprises will pose a danger to the security of the CCP regime. Therefore, the development of private enterprises must be monitored and must meet the prerequisite of political security.
Yuan Xiang, an Internet commentator, said sarcastically: “In order to do something, you must first learn how to be a human being, ‘To practice this skill, you must first practice yourself. To make themselves different, don’t eat, don’t drink, don’t be greedy, don’t occupy, don’t gamble, but also run medical school is not making money, this is not good.”
Teng Biao said that if any power is perceived as a threat to its system and prestige, the CCP will suppress it by all means. This was also the case with Ren Zhiqiang, who was recently heavily sentenced, though not in the same situation as Sun Dawu; religious groups, house churches, human rights activists, civil society organizations, all of these forces that give some space to the private sector and push the development of China’s legal system, will be comprehensively suppressed.
Sun Dawu has not hidden his views on institutional inequality. Writing for the New York Times in 2012, he pointed out, “In the countryside, eight ‘big-brimmed hats’ control one ‘broken straw hat,'” in an article titled “What Road Should China Take Toward Urbanization? ‘”, revealing the reality that the rural and peasant communities at the bottom of the Chinese ladder are subject to extreme government oppression.
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