Under Mr. Xi has worsened the party’s traditionally suspicious stance against businessmen who are politically active or outspoken. Wang Gongquan, a former venture capitalist who funded advocacy for more liberal social and political policies, was one of the first high-profile individuals to be jailed after Mr. Xi came to power. Ren Zhiqiang, a retired real estate mogul, was sentenced to 18 years in prison last year after repeatedly criticizing Mr Xi’s policies, including the government’s misuse in the early days of the coronavirus outbreak.
In private chat rooms and behind closed doors, some people are asking what signal Beijing is sending to the private sector by arresting Mr. Sun. The outspoken and generous Mr. Sun is, in a sense, the model of the bourgeois businessman praising the party. He has built a city – Dawu City – around his company’s campus in rural Hebei province, complete with a 1,000-bed hospital.
“My dream,” he once said, “is to build a modern city in the countryside.”
Mr. Sun, 66, was born in Xushui, Hebei Province, about a two-hour drive south of Beijing. He joined the People’s Liberation Army after graduating from high school. Eight years later, he left the military and returned to his hometown to work at the state-owned Agricultural Bank of China.
A curious and restless soul, he studied law in college and took courses in Chinese literature in his spare time. In 1985 he quit his job at the bank and started a company with 1,000 chickens and 50 pigs. His company, Dawu Agricultural and Animal Husbandry Group, now employs approximately 9,000 people, many from nearby villages.
As his business grew, Mr. Sun sought out liberal intellectuals in Beijing. In the spring of 2003, he became a voice for the rights of farmers and entrepreneurs, speaking at top Chinese universities.
After irritating authorities, he was arrested on charges of illegal fundraising. His new friends came to his aid. Legal scholars argued that the law he was accused of trespassing was written in a way that gave authorities wide discretion to charge businessmen who had fallen out of favor.
Liu Xiaobo, the human rights activist who later became a Nobel Peace Prize winner who died in prison in 2017, then explained that Mr. Sun “poses a huge challenge to the current system.” As an entrepreneur, Mr. Liu, Mr. Sun bribery, he had the financial means to act independently and he had the courage to speak out and push for political reform.