Washington D.C., August 6, 2021 – Sun Dawu, a well-known private entrepreneur in China, was recently sentenced to 18 years imprisonment on eight charges, including “picking quarrels and provoking trouble,” by a court in China’s Hebei Province. Nineteen employees from his company were also sentenced to prison terms ranging from one to 12 years.
Who is Sun Dawu, what has he done, and why is he in prison? Prof. Cheng Tiejun’s book Sun Dawu’s Dream of Capital Socialism ( in Chinese), published by Citizen Press, the publishing arm of Citizen Power Initiatives for China, provides all the answers about Mr. Sun and his company, including the author’s personal observations of and interactions with Sun Dawu. The book focuses on Sun Dawu’s lifelong dream to bring about social justice in China, particularly Sun’s understanding of the free market, enterprises, private property rights, wealth distribution, and social insurance. Mr. Sun advocates “public governance” and “wealth sharing” on the basis of a market economy and well-protected property rights.
The book describes how Mr. Sun Dawu put his idea of social responsibility and justice into practice by creating an agriculture conglomerate from scratch in impoverished parts of Hebei Province, with nearly 10,000 employees and over 10,000 students benefiting from the effort. Mr. Sun sought to integrate production, education, healthcare, recreation and retirement, thus transforming the region into a dazzling pearl of the North China Plain. However, before Mr. Sun could fully realize his dream and help his fellow peasants to further improve their lives and livelihood, he was arrested, tortured and imprisoned under fabricated charges. This is a true story of how one man’s dream of social justice started – and how it was ultimately shattered.
The book’s author, Cheng Tiejun, is a prominent Chinese sociologist and a former professor at the University of Macau. He is a prolific writer, and his writings often offer readers deep insights into the realities of contemporary China.
Sun Dawu’s Dream of Capital Socialism is now available in Traditional Chinese on Amazon. It can be downloaded in Kindle format at https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09BV63Z97.