New York Democratic Gov. Kathy Hockle said Wednesday she had spoken with the State Department and [her] Trump said he “wants” to see a Chinese diplomat, who he and his office have met with repeatedly since 2019, “removed” from his post in New York after being mentioned dozens of times in the indictment against a former Trump aide.
During an unrelated press conference on Wednesday, Haukle told media that he had spoken by phone with senior State Department officials at the request of Secretary of State Antony Blinken, “[Consul General Huang Ping] From the People's Republic of China and the New York Mission [being] Banished, I [consul general] I am no longer at the New York Mission.”
Haukle's comments were later denied by State Department spokesman Matthew Miller, who told reporters that “the consul general has not been expelled” and that Ping left his post “at the end of his rolling rotation in August.” He added that “no expulsion action has been taken.”
“It's an embarrassment for the State Department,” said Michael Sobolik, a senior fellow for Indo-Pacific studies at the Foreign Policy Council. Post to X“Huang Ping was in collusion with US elected officials. Hit back hard at Beijing. Don't give them an escape route.”
“Chinese Communist Party propaganda purveyor” Huang Ping attends Lunar New Year parade with Schumer and other New York Democratic Party leaders
Linda Sun, a former aide to New York Governor Kathy Hockle, is accused of buying $6 million worth of real estate in New York and Hawaii with Chinese Communist Party funds. (Getty Images)
The report about Ping follows the arrest of Hawkle's former deputy chief of staff, Linda Sun, and her husband, Chris Foo, early Tuesday morning, with Sun being indicted on charges of “violating and conspiracy to violate the Foreign Agents Registration Act, visa fraud, alien smuggling and money laundering conspiracy,” according to a press release from the Department of Justice later the same day.
Hokl's office issued a statement saying that “after discovering evidence of wrongdoing, we terminated her employment in March 2023, immediately reported her conduct to law enforcement, and have assisted law enforcement throughout this process,” but also repeatedly praised the Chinese Communist Party and The 64-page Justice Department indictment was unsealed Dozens of communications with Sun would bring even more scrutiny.
Ping, who has served as consul general at the Chinese Consulate in New York since 2018 and has repeatedly referred to the Chinese Communist Party as a “great political party,” is listed in the indictment as “Chinese Communist Party Official 1” and appears to have met multiple times with Ho Chol, who is referred to as “Politician 2.” Fox News Digital was the first media outlet to report on the case in 2022. The relationship between Hawkle and PinHe noted that they met in April 2019, when she was lieutenant governor, to discuss cooperation between New York and China.
The deleted photo of Hawkle and Pin Excerpt from the press release In the photo, the two are seen standing side by side, smiling and holding certificates given to them by Hokul for Asian American and Pacific Islander American Heritage Month.
In February 2021, he included a video of her in a Facebook post, calling her an “old friend,” and has also attended other events with her this year. both Attended A Lunar New Year event in New York City in February. Video from the event shows Ping helping Hoklu set off firecrackers.
“We look forward to continuing to strengthen our cultural, social and economic connections.” Hoeffel says: In a letter written in November 2021 for an event hosted by Ping in support of U.S.-China relations.
In addition to Hokul's ties to Ping, his comments are relevant because the unsealed indictment makes clear that Sun used his government position to influence policy and promote the same arguments that Ping and the Chinese Communist Party promoted.
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New York Governor Kathy Hockle spoke during a briefing on the COVID-19 variant BA.2.86 on September 13, 2023. (Getty Images)
Fox News Digital previously reported that Ping's podcast comments aligned with the Chinese Communist Party's line included dismissing the Uighur genocide as a “lie” despite repeated allegations from the State Department and the Holocaust Museum that China is committing genocide, rejecting Taiwanese independence by saying “Taiwan and mainland China are 'the same family,'” and questioning whether the US is “interfering in China's internal affairs.”
According to the unsealed indictment, then-Vice Governor Ho Chol's speechwriter wanted to mention “the situation of the Uighurs” in China in a 2021 Chinese New Year message, but the plight of the ethnic minority persecuted by the Chinese government was ultimately omitted after Sun overruled the speechwriter. According to the indictment, Sun was clear with Ping about what the speechwriter wanted to include, but insisted his boss not let him mention the Uighurs after he admitted he was “beginning to become upset” with the speechwriter.
According to the indictment, Ping took the speechwriter's suggestion to be the utterance of an ignorant American who had never been to China and alleged that U.S.-China relations could be “spoiled” because of someone like the speechwriter, and Sun acknowledged that the speechwriter had never visited China. A few days later, Ping posted Hochul's Lunar New Year message to his own Facebook page, but it did not mention the Uighurs.
The indictment further alleges that Sun repeatedly used his government positions in the Cuomo and Hawkle administrations to prevent “representatives of the Taiwanese government” from meeting with New York state government officials, including Hawkle and Hawkle, and then bragged about his actions to Chinese officials, including Ping. In one instance, Sun texted a Chinese official in the fall of 2020, saying he “almost had a heart attack when I referred to Taiwan as a country,” and told the official that he “immediately had my media team correct me,” according to the indictment.
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Huang Ping visited Condé Nast executives on November 1st. (Consulate-General of the People's Republic of China in New York)
In another instance, according to the indictment, Sun told Chinese consulate officials that the office of then-lieutenant governor Ho Chol had received an invitation from Taiwan's Ministry of Economic Affairs to attend a SelectUSA Summit event in Washington, D.C., in 2016, and that the invitation had been “sent to another colleague without going through me.” Sun told the official he was working to “resolve the issue.”
The Sun later confirmed that “all matters have been resolved satisfactorily,” and Hoffle attend reception The meeting was hosted by the Chinese Embassy and the U.S.-China General Chamber of Commerce, a New York-based group that is praised by China's Communist Party officials in Beijing.
According to Chinese state media reports in 2020, Wang Yang, China's “top political advisor” and described as “member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC),” sent a congratulatory message to the group.
According to the indictment, Ho Chol did not attend an event in Taiwan to which his firm was invited.
The indictment lists multiple gifts that Sun and her husband received from Chinese officials in return for allegedly acting on behalf of the Chinese government in her government capacity, including luxury tickets and travel perks to concerts and other events in New York, and Ping gifting Sun's parents a chef-prepared Nanjing salt duck. The indictment further lists “brokering millions of dollars in transactions for Sun's husband's China-based business activities,” which the indictment alleges were used to purchase a $3.6 million property in Manhattan, New York, a $1.9 million condominium in Honolulu, and other luxury items, including a 2024 Ferrari.
In a statement issued as part of a Department of Justice press release on Tuesday, FBI Acting Assistant Director Christine Curtis accused Sun of “using his influence among senior officials to covertly advance the Chinese Communist Party and its policies, directly threatening our national security.”
“The FBI is committed to protecting the American people from all threats that seek to influence our authorities at the direction of foreign entities,” she added.
While Hochl's office distanced itself from Sun during a press conference Wednesday and downplayed her as a “mid-level official” in the administration, the former deputy chief of staff received cheers from the Democratic governor. Speech in 2021 He touted the “diversity” of his staff and boasted that he was “committed” to “attract the most talented people and open state government to better serve the people of New York State.”
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Linda Sun, center, an aide to former New York Gov. Kathy Hockle, and her husband, Christopher Hu, second from left, leave the Brooklyn federal courthouse after their arraignment, Tuesday, Sept. 3, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Corey Shipkin)
“We got it done in literally two months, and I want to thank the women who got to do such an important job,” Hokell said, “and I also want to thank the rest of my team who are represented here. Linda Sun here. Linda Sun, where are you, Linda Sun?”
Sun is It can be communicated in the room The head of nearly 20 publicly-publicized meetings with Hockle between August 2021 and May 2022, who served as “chief diversity officer” in the later Cuomo administration, is quoted in an unearthed video from early in Hockle's administration saying, “When people talk about diversity and inclusion, I think everybody, or most people, would generally agree that it's a good thing.”
“But I think now we also need to bring in the word fairness,” she added.
The official added that equity is “a way of ensuring that everyone attending the meeting has equal access and that their ideas and thoughts are heard.”
“And unfortunately, in the corporate world and in government, we don't have as much Asian American leadership or representation,” Sun added.
Later in the webinar, Sun appeared to reference a 2018 executive order signed by former Gov. Andrew Cuomo that made “diversity, inclusion and equity a top priority.”
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Sun lawyer Jarrod Shafer previously told Fox News Digital that he and the company were “confused by aspects of the government's investigation.”
“We are disappointed that these charges have been filed. They appear to be inflammatory and the result of overly aggressive prosecution,” Schafer said. “As we stated in court today, our clients intend to exercise their right to a speedy trial and defend against these charges in the appropriate forum, a court of law.”
Fox News Digital has reached out to Hawkle's office and the Chinese Consulate in New York.
Fox News' Andrea Vacchiano contributed to this report.
