The case received massive attention in the media and on the Internet in China, resulting in the abolition of the C&R system by the national government.
After the Chinese New Year of 2003, he left Hubei for the coastal Guangdong Province, an area of south China that depends on migrant labor.
He had been detained after being unable to produce his temporary living permit (Chinese: 暂住证) and his resident identity card when he was stopped by the police.
[1] Sun's family reported the information to investigative reporters at Southern Metropolis Daily in Guangdong, on April 25, during the SARS epidemic—the official reaction or lack of it due to SARS having already created much controversy on the Internet, but soon Internet activity skyrocketed, hundreds of thousands of messages, with help from Sun's friends and outraged sympathizers.
[2] Among these reactions, two groups of senior Chinese legal scholars wrote to the National People's Congress, questioning the constitutionality of the custody and repatriation regulation.
As a result, it was argued, the C&R law for migrant workers was unconstitutional, on the grounds that it violated citizens' rights articles of the Constitution.
Human rights defense lawyers asserted that the actions were local official revenge for the journalists' expression of press freedom.