Classification: Relative of the entrepreneur Sun Dawu and senior executive of the Dawu Group in Hebei; detained November 2020; sentenced to nine years in prison in July 2021; reported in custody as of August 2026.
Background
Sun Zhihua (孙志华), born July 25, 1963, is a relative of the entrepreneur Sun Dawu and served as vice chairman of the board of supervisors of Hebei Dawu Agricultural and Animal Husbandry Group. In the early hours of November 11, 2020, police in Gaobeidian, Hebei, detained Sun Dawu, his relatives, and company executives — nearly thirty people in all — amid a land dispute between Dawu Group and a state-owned farm.
Trial and sentencing
On July 15, 2021, more than twenty defendants, including Sun Zhihua, were tried together at the Gaobeidian Municipal People’s Court. On July 28, 2021, the court sentenced Sun Zhihua to nine years’ imprisonment and a fine of 550,000 yuan on charges including picking quarrels and provoking trouble, illegal mining, gathering a crowd to storm state institutions, illegal occupation of farmland, sabotaging production, and obstructing public officials. Sun Dawu received eighteen years in the same verdict; Sun Meng and Sun Dehua received twelve years each. The Baoding Intermediate Court ruled on the appeal on August 31, 2021: all sentences were upheld except for two defendants. The charge list is as reported by the case records, not court-document verified here.
Current status
Sun Zhihua’s nine-year term is recorded as running through November 10, 2029. The Rights Defense Network’s monthly prisoner report for August 31, 2026 lists “Sun Zhihua” in its nine-year sentenced group, consistent with him still serving. No release has been reported.
Note on namesakes: a 2016 Changchun Falun Gong practitioner named Sun Zhihua (detention reports, no sentencing record) is a name-only lead with no anchor to the Dawu case; a 孙志华 in a 2001 Daqing detention-center telephone list is a different person. Neither is merged here.
Sources: Chinese Human Rights Defenders, Prisoners of Conscience database record 孙志华 / “SUN ZHI HUA” (entered 2021-04-30); Radio Free Asia, “Court in China’s Hebei Jails Agricultural Magnate Sun Dawu For 18 Years,” July 28, 2021; NPR, “Chinese Billionaire Sun Dawu Is Sentenced To 18 Years For ‘Provoking Trouble,’” July 28, 2021; Associated Press, “Chinese Farmer Who Praised Lawyers Sentenced to 18 Years,” July 28/29, 2021; Rights Defense Network (维权网), Issue 131 monthly prisoner report, August 31, 2026.
Media profile & archive: Media archive for Sun Zhihua (孙志华)