A Southern California campaign manager was arrested by the FBI on Thursday and charged with acting as an illegal agent of a foreign power for allegedly acting on behalf of the Chinese government to influence U.S. politics, federal prosecutors said.
Yaoning “Mike” Sun, 64, was scheduled to appear in federal court later Thursday afternoon on the indictment accusing him of conspiring with 71-year-old John Chen, who was sentenced last month to 20 months in prison for acting as a cop of the police. People’s Republic of China (PRC). An affidavit in the case alleges that Sun and Chen — who prosecutors have also identified as Chen Jun — worked together to get a Southern California city council member elected in 2022.
Sun, a Chino Hills resident who once served in the Chinese military, is alleged by federal prosecutors to have communicated with Chen about efforts to get that unnamed politician elected. Chen spoke with Chinese government officials about how the PRC could influence politicians in the US, with Sino-Taiwanese relations at the center of those discussions.
In early 2023, a few months after the California politician was elected, Chen told Sun to write a report for PRC officials detailing their efforts to support the successful election, prosecutors said. To support their efforts, Sun is said to have proposed that the Chinese government provide a budget of $80,000.
According to federal prosecutors, Chen told Sun to schedule a meeting with the Chinese consul general in Los Angeles, and the pair visited China together in August 2023.
“The conduct alleged in this complaint is deeply troubling – the defendant is accused of acting on behalf of the People’s Republic of China to influence our political system,” U.S. Attorney for the Central District of California Martin Estrada said in a statement statement announcing Sun’s arrest Thursday. . “We cannot allow hostile foreign powers to interfere in the governance of our country.”
Sino-Taiwanese tensions stem from the Taiwanese independence movement and have increased in recent months following the election earlier this year of Lai Chingte as president of Taiwan, who is considered a “separatist” by the Chinese Community Party, according to a report by last month from the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission.
In Southern California, the Taiwanese community maintains strong political ties, according to the Taiwanese American Conference, which describes Los Angeles as “the birthplace of many iconic Taiwanese American associations.”
According to the federal government’s Congressional Research Service, U.S. policy has supported Taiwan’s efforts to deter Beijing from taking power by force. Earlier this month, the U.S. Department of Defense released a report saying the Chinese government continues to acquire a growing number of nuclear warheads and support U.S. adversaries such as Russia.
The recent report from the US-China Economic and Security Review Commission states that the Chinese Community Party has expanded measures “to intimidate Taiwan”, such as increasing its military presence around the archipelago, issuing new guidelines for punishing ‘separatists’ and by the intimidation of Taiwanese travelers to mainland China.
United States District Court for the Central District of California
The affidavit detailing the allegations against Sun and Chen includes an image from a YouTube video in which prosecutors say Chen is seen using a megaphone at a pro-Taiwan protest in Los Angeles, telling protesters : “If you have a Chinese passport, and I take your photo now, you will be arrested when you return to China. If you have an American passport, you cannot get a Chinese visa.”
In outlining the allegations involving Sun, the affidavit states that Chen once wrote to a Chinese government official: “Mr. Sun has been my helping hand in the Chinese community since 1997.” The next day, Chen told the same official that he would support the Southern California politician to do his “job well as a Chinese-American elected official, standing up to Taiwanese independence…”
In another instance, Chen criticized a report prepared by Sun, telling him to add information about the couple’s “past struggle against Taiwanese independence forces” over the years in a California city, the affidavit said. In a later message, according to court filings, Chen instructed Sun to compile a list of mainstream American politicians known to the California politician.
He reportedly told Sun in an audio message “the more the merrier, the higher position the better” about the list of politicians, saying it would be “very effective” in raising the “status of the Californian politician in China” .
Chen was sentenced to prison last month after pleading guilty to federal charges of acting as an unregistered agent of the People’s Republic of China and bribing an IRS agent.
Southern California has been the scene of Chinese-Taiwanese tensions, with a fatal shooting at a Taiwanese Presbyterian church in Laguna Woods two years ago described by Orange County Sheriff Don Barnes as a “politically motivated hate incident,” according to the Los Angeles Times. Angeles Times. The suspected shooter later faced dozens of federal hate crime charges.
