Two Arrests, Two Different Outcomes

[Randy W]

One in 2003, another in 2020 - same person

Two Arrests, Two Outcomes Tell a Tale of Xi Jinping’s China

A rural businessman, Sun Dawu, angered Beijing twice. His fate the second time around could augur the future of the world’s other superpower.

Quote

In 2003, a rural businessman named Sun Dawu was arrested after defying the Chinese government. A group of reform-minded officials, journalists, lawyers and academics waged a successful campaign to free him.
In 2020, the Chinese government went after Mr. Sun after another bout of defiance. But China has changed, and the outcome so far has been vastly different.
Mr. Sun has been held for three months without being charged. His family and senior management team, 24 people in total, were arrested with him. Initially, he couldn’t hire a lawyer. His company has been taken over by the government. And this time, the outside world didn’t try to rescue him.
China was, and remains, an authoritarian country under Communist Party rule. But the nature of its authoritarianism has become much harsher under Xi Jinping, the party’s top leader since late 2012. Mr. Sun’s case exemplifies the country’s drastic turn from a nation striving for economic and social, if not political, liberalization to one increasingly operating in an ideological straitjacket.