Yaoning “Mike” Sun, 64, of Chino Hills, California, was arrested Thursday and charged with acting as an illegal agent of Beijing while influencing local elections.
“The conduct alleged in this complaint is deeply disturbing, and the defendants are charged with acting on behalf of the People's Republic of China to influence our political system. We cannot allow them to interfere with our country's governance.” said Martin Estrada, United States Attorney for the Central District of California.
criminal complaint The complaint against Mr. Sun, filed on Tuesday and unsealed on Thursday, alleges he is an “unlawful agent of the People's Republic of China while serving as a campaign manager for a political candidate running for City Council in 2022.” I was working as a.'' California town. ”
Son allegedly conspired with another defendant, Chen Jun, to elect an unnamed candidate. Mr. Chen was Mr. Sun's liaison with the Chinese government, which was interested in exerting further “influence” over American politicians “particularly regarding the Taiwan issue.”
Mr. Sun's candidate won the November 2022 election, after which Mr. Chen ordered Mr. Sun to write a report on the election for scrutiny by Chinese Communist Party officials. China reportedly thanked Sun for his awareness campaign.
Mr. Chen and Mr. Sun continued their influence activities after the election, founding the Association for the Promotion of U.S.-China Friendship and writing further political analysis for Chinese Communist Party leaders. In February 2023, Sun asked the Chinese government to provide $80,000 in funds to fight “anti-China forces” in Washington.
Sun and Chen traveled to China to meet with Chinese leaders in August 2023, and their last suspicious activity was recorded in the Department of Justice (DOJ) indictment documents.
Mr. Chen, now 71, pleaded guilty in July to attempting to bribe a federal agent as part of an undercover investigation. scheme It targets practitioners of Falun Gong, a spiritual practice hated by the Chinese Communist Party and banned in China. Chen and another defendant, Lin Feng, were attempting to bribe Internal Revenue Service officials to strip the Falun Gong group of its tax-exempt status as part of China's cross-border repression campaign.
Ministry of Foreign Affairs of China claimed On Friday, Mr. Sun and Mr. Chen had no acquaintance and insisted that China would “never interfere in the internal affairs of other countries.”
“The international community clearly recognizes who is actually unduly interfering in the internal affairs of other countries,” Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian quipped.
Friday Associated Press made a hypothesis The candidate mentioned by the Justice Department is Arcadia City Council member Eileen Wang, whose campaign listed Yaoning Sun as treasurer in a document filed in February 2022, but the candidate will not be eligible until late 2022. A different person was named as treasurer in the documents filed. Wang did not respond to an interview with The Associated Press. We have not reached out to you for comment on Sun's arrest.
“The affidavit also alleges that Yaoning Sun, a resident of the Los Angeles suburb of Chino Hills, also ran a media outlet called U.S. News Center with a city council member and paid for some of the politicians' travel expenses,” AP notes. did.
