Like many entrepreneurs in China, Geng Xiaonan found a space to make a small fortune – in her case, by publishing books on cooking, health and lifestyle.
But unlike many Chinese businessmen, she mingled with critics of the party, organizing dinners and salons that brought together liberal intellectuals and retired officials and long-standing dissidents.
Now Geng is due to be tried in Beijing on Tuesday and could spend years in prison for his support for those who are at odds with China’s growing authoritarianism, supporters say. She and her husband, Qin Zhen, have been accused of illegal commercial activities related to their publisher. Friends and observers say his real offense in the eyes of the government was to deviate from business to sympathize with critics of the Communist Party’s power.
Geng, 46, came under increasing scrutiny last year after defending Xu Zhangrun, a law professor in Beijing who was suspended after publishing essays harshly criticizing the party and its main leader, Xi Jinping.
“This is simply political persecution,” said Cai Xia, a former teacher at the Central Party School in Beijing, who said she had been friends with Geng for about eight years. Ms. Cai moved to the United States, where she denounced the deepening of the Chinese Communist Party’s authoritarianism.
“It is a selective inspection system,” added Cai. “They can invent whatever they want when they want to throw a crime at you.”
Geng is the latest among a handful of Chinese businesspeople detained or imprisoned since last year, when the party imposed a tougher line on businesspeople it considers challenging the Beijing government.
In September, authorities sentenced Ren Zhiqiang, a retired real estate tycoon who criticized the way Xi handled the pandemic, to 18 years in prison on charges of bribery and abuse of power. In November, police in Hebei province, near Beijing, arrested Sun Dawu, an agricultural goods entrepreneur who calls for economic and political liberalization and has long disputed with local officials.
Late last year, authorities condemned Li Huaiqing, a businessman who had shared critical messages to the party on social media, to 20 years in prison for fraud, extortion and “inciting subversion of state power”.
“Today, ideological things have been shattered; nobody believes in them, ”said Guo Yuhua, a professor at Tsinghua University who has been friends with Geng for years. “But now that the effectively ideological government has failed, they can also use economic punishments and crimes to condemn it.”
Most Chinese businessmen accept the party’s rule – despite complaints about taxes, fees and employee interference – and many are party members. Only a few risk official wrath by helping or mingling with government critics.
But a large number of businessmen are concerned about their wealth and security in a system that empowers party officials so much. The party, for its part, is concerned about the long-term loyalty of the country’s businessmen, said Wu Qiang, an independent political analyst in Beijing. These official anxieties, he added, seemed to intensify after the pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong in 2019, when some businessmen in the former British colony supported the demonstrations.
“China’s future economic development depends on entrepreneurs,” said Wu. “But as long as you are in business, the party can always use an economic crime to bring you down.”
Ms. Geng and Mr. Qin prospered in the publishing market despite the party’s strict controls over books, identifying topics that would sell well without breaching official limits.
His successful titles include “Fall in love with home-cooked meals” and “The four-week plan to lose weight with yoga”, and Geng used to appear on business forums as a hostess and an urban, balanced example of success.
But while other entrepreneurs shied away from politics, Geng sought to give critical voices a platform. She organized parties for former employees who had been arrested or disgraced with the party in recent decades. She organized a series of online interviews with liberal academics, which her friends said was interrupted after authorities alerted her. Friends said that her husband, Mr. Qin, was not involved in such activities, although he was involved in economic crime charges.
The space for political discourse has shrunk in recent years, as Xi tightened the bonds of society. The leader has repeatedly emphasized the leading role of the state sector, and the party has also warned private entrepreneurs that they must remain loyal.
The Chinese Communist Party introduced new rules in September with the aim of strengthening ties and supervising capitalist companies. “Unify members of the private sector around the party and do better to promote the healthy development of the private economy,” Xi said in instructions to officials published at the time.
Still, Ms. Geng may have remained legally unharmed, except for her strong support for Professor Xu, the outspoken law instructor. He was suspended from teaching and research by Tsinghua University in 2019, after publishing a series of essays condemning China’s draconian turn in Xi’s government.
In July last year, police in Beijing detained him for a few days and said he was suspected of looking for a prostitute – a charge that Professor Xu called an unfounded attempt to slander his reputation. At about the same time, Tsinghua fired him.
Ms. Geng jumped in defense of Professor Xu, relaying information about his disappearance. Soon after, Ms. Geng realized she was being followed. She hired a lawyer to represent her if she were arrested.
“The authorities’ butcher knife could fall at any time,” Geng said in a July interview with Radio Free Asia, explaining his support for Professor Xu. “Everyone is saying that I am also in great danger and all kinds of omens made me feel the same way.”
Geng and her husband were arrested in Beijing in September, and police later said the couple was suspected of publishing books without proper authorization. Geng’s lawyer Shang Baojun said last year that the charge involved thousands of cookbooks that investigators said did not have the proper license. His friends said the couple should be tried on Tuesday.
Beijing prosecutors and Haidian district officials refused to answer questions about the case or say whether the trial would go ahead. It was not clear whether the charges against her and her husband had changed.
Days before the start of the Geng trial, Shang said he no longer represented her and could not comment on the reason. Cai and his supporters said Geng appeared to have been forced to change lawyers, possibly in the hope of winning a lighter sentence. Under Chinese law, convictions for illegal commercial activities carry sentences of up to five years in prison, along with heavy economic fines.
“Geng has become a model,” said Zhang Lifan, a retired historian and businessman in Beijing. He quoted a Chinese saying: “It is killing a chicken to scare monkeys, to warn others not to imitate it.”