A Southern California political operative, who served as the campaign manager for a successful city council race, was arrested on a federal complaint that accuses him of acting on behalf of the People's Republic of China (PRC) as an illegal foreign agent.
The Chino Hills man, Yaoning “Mike” Sun, 64, is expected to make his first court appearance Thursday. It was not immediately clear whether he has an attorney.
He also is accused of conspiring with Chen Jun, who was sentenced last month to 20 months in prison for acting as a foreign agent and bribery.
Sun is accused of communicating with Chen to discuss his candidate's campaign. The location of the city council race was not available and the candidate is referred to as “Individual 1” in the federal complaint.
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“Chen discussed with Chinese government officials how the PRC could 'influence' local politicians in the United States, particularly on the issue of Taiwan, according to the complaint,” read a press release Thursday from the United States Attorney's Office for the Central District of California.
Sun wrote two reports at the instruction of Chen that were sent to government officials in China, according to authorities. In a draft of the second report, the complaint said he bragged that “most proudly of all, during the 2022 U.S. midterm elections, I orchestrated and organized my team to win the election for city council member candidate [Individual 1].”
If convicted of both charges he could face a maximum of 15 years in prison.
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“This case highlights the breadth of the PRC’s relentless intelligence and malign influence activities targeting the United States,” said Akil Davis, the assistant director in charge of the FBI’s Los Angeles Field Office. “The FBI will continue to use all the tools at its disposal to identify PRC intelligence operations, disrupt PRC information laundering networks, and bring to justice those who seek to engage in criminal conspiracies to undermine the integrity of our elected officials.”
