Political Operative Sentenced to 4 Years in Federal Prison for Acting as Covert Agent of People’s Republic of China

LOS ANGELES - A San Bernardino County man was sentenced today to 48 months in federal prison 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.

Yaoning "Mike" Sun, 65, of Chino Hills, was sentenced by United States District Judge R. Gary Klausner. Sun pleaded guilty in October 2025 to one count of acting as an illegal agent of a foreign government.

"Federal law enforcement will not allow hostile foreign nations to infiltrate the governance of our nation's political bodies," said First Assistant United States Attorney Bill Essayli. "The relentlessness of PRC intelligence operations in our country must be met by equal relentlessness on our part to secure, protect, and defend the United States."

"When Americans vote for elected officials, they expect them to represent the interests of their constituents - not those of a foreign adversary like the Chinese government," said Assistant Director Roman Rozhavsky of the FBI's Counterintelligence and Espionage Division. "By exploiting his position as a campaign advisor, Yaoning Sun attempted to undermine our political processes and democratic institutions for the benefit of the Chinese Communist Party. Today's sentencing underscores the unwavering commitment of the FBI and our partners to defending the homeland and holding accountable anyone who tries to subvert the will of American voters at the behest of our adversaries."

According to court documents, from at least 2022 to January 2024, Sun knowingly acted within the United States as an agent of the PRC and officials of its government - without notifying the Attorney General, as required by U.S. law.

At the direction and control of PRC government officials, Sun coordinated with U.S.-based individuals to promote the PRC's interests by, among other things, "orchestrat[ing]" a team to help elect a politician identified in court documents as "Individual 1" to political office and promoting pro-PRC propaganda in the United States.

Sun also closely surveilled the then-President of Taiwan during her April 2023 visit to Southern California, reporting directly to PRC officials on her movements.

At the direction of PRC officials, from 2020 through 2023, Sun and Individual 1 worked together to operate a purported news website for the local Chinese American community. Sun and Individual 1 received and executed directives from PRC government officials to post pro-PRC content.

Throughout 2022, Sun also worked as the campaign advisor for Individual 1 who was running for a city council seat in a Southern California city. Individual 1 was elected to that city council in November 2022.

In December 2022, Sun attended a meeting in Southern California with a group of other people, including Individual 1, whom PRC officials were told was a "team dedicated" to PRC interests, according to Sun's plea agreement.

In February 2023, Sun drafted a report for PRC officials to solicit additional money and taskings from the PRC government. Sun's report summarized his personal experience, including his past service in the People's Liberation Army, China's military. In the report, Sun stated that he had 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" for Individual 1, whom Sun called a "new political star," Sun's plea agreement states.

Sun's report described various issues concerning "anti-China forces" overseas, including opposition to independence for Taiwan, Tibet, and Xinjiang as well as issues involving Falun Gong, a spiritual movement banned in China. The report further proposed "using part of our Los Angeles organization's professional core team," to seek to counteract those forces, according to court documents. To that end, Sun's report requested $80,000 from the PRC government to fund a pro-PRC demonstration at a Fourth of July parade in Washington, D.C.

Throughout 2023 and 2024, Sun communicated with an official at the consulate general of the People's Republic of China in Los Angeles regarding activities in Southern California related to Taiwan.

In April 2023, President Tsai Ing-Wen of Taiwan visited Southern California. Sun sent real-time updates on President Tsai's movements to a Los Angeles-based PRC consular official and sought approval from this official to publish an article about President Tsai's visit on the website he operated with Individual 1. Sun also took photographs of individuals protesting in support of and opposition to President Tsai and sent those photographs to the consular official.

"As an agent for the PRC, [Sun] worked covertly in the United States with his primary co-conspirator John Chen, a/k/a 'Chen Jun,'" prosecutors argued in a sentencing memorandum. "Chen was a high-level member of the PRC intelligence apparatus, who regularly attended elite [Chinese Communist Party] functions, including military parades…[and] met personally with PRC President Xi Jinping… Per his own report, and other communications between Chen and PRC officials, [Sun] served as Chen's right-hand man in the United States for decades."

Chen was sentenced in November 2024 to 20 months in federal prison after pleading guilty in the Southern District of New York to acting as an illegal agent of the PRC and conspiracy to bribe a public official.

The FBI investigated this matter.

Assistant United States Attorney Amanda B. Elbogen of the National Security Division prosecuted this case with assistance from Trial Attorney Garrett Coyle of the Counterintelligence and Export Control Section in the Department of Justice's National Security Division.