Born in Penglai, Shandong, he earned his Bachelor of Electrical Engineering from the Harbin Institute of Technology in 1934. From 1937 to 1940 he was an engineer at the National Resources Commission and worked at a government-run power station in Qinghai province, he earned fame and respect throughout China for disassembling and then transporting an electrical/power boiler, into Kuomintang territory in order to prevent the expensive equipment from falling into enemy Japanese hands. During World War II (from 1939 to 1945), he was sent by the National Resources Commission to train in the United States as an engineer at the Tennessee Valley Authority.
In 1946, he was sent to Taiwan (which had just been handed over to the Nationalist Governmentfrom Japan following the Allied victory in World War II) to work at the Taiwan Power Company, a public utility. Managing a staff of several hundred, Sun was able to get 80% of the power network in Taiwan (destroyed during the war) restored in five months. At Taiwan Power Company, he was Head Engineer of the Electrical and Mechanical Department from 1946 to 1950, Chief Engineer from 1950 to 1962, and Vice President from 1953 to 1962.
Due to his successes in Taiwan, the World Bank sent him to Nigeria as head of the Electricity Corporation of Nigeria in 1964, which he served as CEO and General Manager until 1967. He increased Nigeria's power supply by 88%.