California Political Advisor Sentenced for Acting as an Unregistered Chinese Agent, According to DOJ
LOS ANGELES – Yaoning "Mike" Sun, 65, has been sentenced to four years in federal prison for acting as an unregistered agent of the Chinese government. The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California detailed that Sun orchestrated a sophisticated influence campaign aimed at U.S. political systems.
Between 2022 and early 2024, Sun was allegedly directed by officials from the People’s Republic of China (PRC) without registering with the U.S. Attorney General. During this period, he played a significant role in securing the election of an unidentified individual referred to in court as "Individual 1," who successfully won a city council seat in Southern California in November 2022.
Additionally, Sun collaborated with "Individual 1" to manage a local Chinese-language news website, which was utilized to spread pro-PRC propaganda. His activities included conducting surveillance on Taiwan’s President Tsai Ing-Wen during her visit to Southern California in 2023, where he provided real-time reports and photographs of the protest activities to PRC consular officials.
Court documents indicate that Sun operated closely alongside John Chen, a high-ranking official within the PRC intelligence community, who has previously met with President Xi Jinping.
“Federal law enforcement will not allow hostile foreign nations to infiltrate the governance of our nation’s political bodies,” stated Bill Essayli, First Assistant United States Attorney. Roman Rozhavsky, Assistant Director of the FBI’s Counterintelligence and Espionage Division, emphasized that when Americans vote, they expect their interests to be represented—not those of a foreign adversary.
Sun’s prison sentence will commence immediately. His co-conspirator, John Chen, was sentenced to 20 months in 2024. Meanwhile, federal authorities continue to monitor for potential foreign influence operations targeting local and midterm elections across the country.
