Chinese billionaire Sun Dawu jailed for 18 years: What you need to know

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67-years-old Chinese billionaire Sun Dawu has been jailed for 18 years in China. This is in continuation of the strict policy of Chinese government to punish people speaking against them.

Sun Dawu owns China’s largest agricultural business in the northern province of Hebei. He is also famous for speaking out against certain government policies and sensitive topics. He has been charged with "picking quarrels and provoking trouble”.

Apart from that he has also been charged with bunch of other things including, illegally occupying farmland, and assembling a crowd to attack state agencies. He was also asked to pay a fine of 3.11 million yuan.

Last year, he was detained over a land dispute with a government-run farm. He is also one of the few people to openly accuse the government of covering up an African swine flu outbreak. He was also sentenced to prison in 2003, but the case was later overturned due to support from protestors.

During trial hearing, he denied most of the accusations made against him. However, he did admit to making some posts online for which he was accused of.