Chinese Communist Spy Gets 4 Years for Infiltrating California Politics

Sun took direct commands from PRC officials to advance Beijing's agenda. He coordinated with U.S.-based contacts to elect "Individual 1," identified in court documents as Eileen Wang, to the Arcadia City Council in November 2022. Sun served as her campaign adviser and treasurer, and the pair became engaged during the operation.

Wang has not faced charges related to the case, but her election victory allowed PRC influence to seep into local governance in Southern California.

From 2020 to 2023, Sun and Wang ran a propaganda website aimed at Chinese Americans, posting whatever their Communist handlers told them to. In December 2022, Sun met with Wang and others in Southern California, calling them a "team dedicated" to serving Beijing.

When Taiwan's president visited Southern California in April 2023, Sun stalked her every move, sending real-time updates and photos of protesters to a Chinese consulate official in Los Angeles. He even asked for permission to post about the visit on his propaganda site.

Sun drafted detailed reports to PRC officials bragging about his efforts to counter "anti-China forces." He highlighted his past service in the People's Liberation Army, boasted of leading U.S. delegations to China, and claimed to resist "hostile forces" undermining U.S.-China relations, including supporters of Taiwan, Tibet, and Xinjiang independence, as well as Falun Gong practitioners.

In one February 2023 report, Sun called Wang a "new political star" and requested $80,000 from Beijing to fund a pro-PRC demonstration at a Fourth of July parade in Washington, D.C. He proposed using his Los Angeles network to neutralize these perceived threats.

Sun's main handler was John Chen, also known as Chen Jun, a top PRC intelligence operative who attended elite Chinese Communist Party events and met personally with Xi Jinping. Chen received a 20-month prison sentence in November 2024 in the Southern District of New York for acting as an illegal agent and conspiracy to bribe a public official. Prosecutors described Sun as Chen's "right-hand man" in the United States for decades.

Assistant Attorney General John A. Eisenberg labeled Sun's actions a brazen assault on U.S. sovereignty, pointing out how he spread Chinese propaganda and intimidated groups Beijing deems enemies. FBI Assistant Director Roman Rozhavsky stressed that Sun exploited his campaign role to corrupt American elections for the Chinese Communist Party's gain.

First Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli warned that federal authorities will relentlessly counter PRC intelligence operations threatening U.S. political institutions.

The FBI led the investigation. Assistant U.S. Attorney Amanda B. Elbogen from the National Security Division prosecuted the case, assisted by Trial Attorney Garrett Coyle from the Counterintelligence and Export Control Section.

Communist China, run by the CCP, is no real technological threat. Their so-called economy is built on stealing American inventions, using slave labor in camps, and rigging the market with government money. Beijing copies the West and crushes free thought. They can't compete honestly, so they cheat to try to bring America down.

The CCP unleashed COVID-19 from a Wuhan lab in 2019, killing millions and wrecking economies to weaken their enemies.

They pump out fake news through state media like CGTN and pay influencers on TikTok, which Beijing owns and uses to spy on Americans. They bribe politicians, professors, and journalists to push anti-American lies and stir up trouble over Taiwan and human rights.

Cases like Sun's prove the CCP is worming its way into local governments to chip away at American sovereignty, all while they deny their genocide against Uyghurs and stomp out freedom in Hong Kong.

America must expose and crush these communist infiltrators before they turn our nation into another vassal state.