On July 28, in the closing statements at his trial, 67-year-old Sun Dawu made an impassioned plea for leniency from the Chinese court officials who that day sentenced him to 18 years in prison. The renowned agricultural entrepreneur, along with family members and colleagues, had spent months in China’s harrowing “residential surveillance” detention system after being arrested last November. Their case went to trial just days after charges were brought to court, leaving the defense hardly any time to review the 348 volumes of case documents. Speaking at the Gaobeidian Municipal People’s Court in northern China’s Baoding city, Sun—whose incriminating offenses were “provoking trouble” and “gathering a crowd to attack state organs”—choked up multiple times as he described how he and partners built up their business from a modest batch of chickens and pigs to a national brand worth billions. Sun’s company, the Dawu Agricultural and Animal Husbandry Group, was …