An Australian businessman has been sentenced to 14-and-a-half years jail in China.

Both the severity of the punishment and even that the sentence was announced today have come as a shock to the family of Matthew Ng.

In the southern city of Guangzhou, the Australian businessman was found guilty of embezzlement, corruption, bribery and falsifying records.

He has been sentenced to 14-and-a-half years but will only serve 13 years in prison because the court granted him a year-and-a-half for what is described as "mercy".

Ng was arrested last year after a commercial dispute with Chinese state-owned travel company Lignan.

He had bought shares in Lignan but after the shares' value went up the company said they wanted to buy them back at their original value.

When Ng refused it lead to a dispute with the company.

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Some observers say the trial has been rigged because he has come into conflict with a state-owned company, but prosecutors say he is guilty.

The sentence has come as surprise because Australian consular officials in Guangzhou were told this was not going to happen.

Unlike an Australian court, Chinese court trials are heard behind closed doors and media cannot report on the evidence or how strong the case is based on what is presented.

The ABC understands that prosecutors turned up today with fresh evidence, giving Ng little chance to contest the evidence before he was sentenced.

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The sentence shocked Ng's wife Nikki Chow, with whom he has three young children.

"Thirteen years for Matthew. I don't think he can take it," she told a newspaper in Guangzhou.

"Thirteen years. He was shocked, very shocked, nobody expected the verdict would be today."

It is not yet known if Ng will appeal the sentence, but such a move may end in a more severe sentence.

Ng's sentence also raises questions for Australian-Chinese people wanting to do business in China, particularly those doing business with government-owned companies, operated by members of the ruling Communist Party.

But considering there are only a few cases like Ng's occurring, it is not stopping Australian companies doing business with China.

Foreign business communities were already nervous following the Stern Hu case last year.