The family of a Mississauga businessman has launched a campaign to get him released from jail in China.

Jimmy Chen has been in custody since October 2006, accused of fraud, but his family insists he's being held because of a business dispute with a Chinese electronics company.
  
On Wednesday they launched a petition to pressure the federal government into fighting for his release.

Chen moved to Canada with his wife and daughter in 1994. He started his own company importing electronics from China.
 
At one point Chen and the Chinese company got into a dispute over production quality, late deliveries and withheld payments. A series of lawsuits were filed by both sides in Ontario.
  
When Chen went to China in the fall of 2006, he thought he was being invited to settle the dispute, but he was quickly arrested.
 
Chen's wife and daughter haven't seen or spoken to him since.

"It's really hard for the two of us," daughter Yan Chen told CBC News.  "[We're] trying to give each other as much support as we can, but we'd really like to have my dad back." 
 
Canadian diplomats have been able to see Chen, but there's no word on why he's being detained.

The family's Toronto lawyer, Courtney Betty, said "a quick four-hour trial" was held in January, but it didn't resolve anything. "Since then we've had no indications, no word, no decision to that matter." 

The family is now looking for political and public support to put pressure on China because their private attempt to free Chen has not worked.