The Department of Justice announced last week that a man previously serving as a campaign advisor was a spy for China. He has been sentenced to four years in prison.
Yaoning “Mike” Sun, a 65-year-old man from Chino Hills, California, was sentenced for “acting as an illegal agent of the People’s Republic of China (PRC), including while serving as the campaign advisor for a political candidate who was elected to the city council of a Southern California city,” the Justice Department explained. Court documents indicate that from 2022 to January 2024, Sun knowingly served as an agent for China.
At the direction of Chinese officials, Sun coordinated with U.S. individuals to support China’s interests by “orchestrat[ing]” a team to help elect a politician identified in documents as “Individual 1” to political office. Between 2020 and 2023, Sun and “Individual 1” operated an alleged news website for Chinese Americans, the DOJ noted.
“Individual 1” is believed to be Arcadia Mayor Eileen Wang. Sun’s plea agreement said he and “Individual 1” were a “team dedicated” to Chinese interests.
Sun also conducted a surveillance operation in April 2023 upon the visit of President Tsai Ing-Wen of Taiwan to Southern California. Also in 2023, Sun created a report for China, where he wrote that he worked in the United States to lead “delegations of U.S. dignitaries and cultural workers to China,” “persist in resisting any hostile forces that undermine the friendship of U.S.-China relations, and Chinese secessionist forces,” and, “most of all, during the 2022 U.S. midterm elections, I orchestrated and organized my team to win the election for city council.” He called “Individual 1” a “new political star.”
