A former political aide tried to secretly advance China’s interests, say prosecutors

U.S. prosecutors accused Linda Sun, 40, of secretly working to push the interests of the Chinese government while working as an aide to New York Gov. Kathy Hochul.

In exchange, the prosecutors said, Sun’s family reaped benefits. U.S. Attorney Breon Peace said “the illicit scheme enriched the defendant’s family to the tune of millions of dollars.”

Sun was arrested on Tuesday in New York and has been charged with failure to register as a foreign agent, money laundering, conspiracy and other crimes. 

Her husband, Christopher Hu, 41, who runs a store called Leivine Wine and Spirits in Flushing, Queens, was also arrested. According to the indictment, he helped with kickbacks, facilitating the transfer of millions of dollars. He has been charged with money laundering, conspiracy and conspiracy to commit bank fraud.

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The case may be further evidence of how Chinese officials try to influence political policies in the United States, former FBI counterintelligence agent Holden Triplett, co-founder of a risk management consultancy, Trenchcoat Advisors, said. 

“This helps to demonstrate how widespread and real this threat is – and also acts as a warning to people and serves as a lesson in what is illegal,” Triplett said in an interview.

Sun started working for former Gov. Andrew Cuomo in 2012 and was promoted to the position of director of Asian American Affairs, according to her online posts. She then served as an aide to Hochul. Sun was hired by the state’s Department of Labor in 2022, but she left after several months.

Tickets and other gifts

According to court documents, Sun tried to cut out references to Taiwan, a hot-button issue for the Chinese government, in state communications. In addition, prosecutors said, she procured unauthorized letters from the governor’s office to help Chinese government officials travel to the United States for meetings with state officials.

In exchange, Sun and her husband received profits from business funneled to his Flushing liquor store, as well as event tickets, a job for her cousin in China and gifts. One of these gifts, salted duck prepared by the personal chef of a Chinese consulate official, was sent to her parents’ house, according to the prosecutors.

According to the indictment, the couple laundered the money and used the profits to buy a $3.5 million dollar house in Manhasset and a new Ferrari, among other items.

Sun and Hu pleaded not guilty on Tuesday and were released on bond. Seth DuCharme, a lawyer for Sun, did not respond immediately to a request for comment. Neither did Ken Abell, a lawyer for Hu.

The arrests of Sun and Hu follow a crackdown on the Chinese government’s attempt to influence U.S. views and to spy on people in this country. A pro-democracy activist, Yuanjun Tang, was recently accused of working secretly for the Chinese Ministry of State Security.

In August, Shujun Wang, a historian, was found guilty of serving as an agent of a foreign government without notifying the attorney general. 

Wang faces up to 25 years in prison and will be sentenced in January. 

Some analysts say that the significance of the cases like Sun’s and Hu’s may be overblown, however. The charges are held up as examples of pernicious Chinese influence on the United States, but they do not always pan out. Or they may not be as damaging as they initially seem.

Alex Nowrasteh, a vice president at the libertarian Cato Institute and the author of a study “Espionage, Espionage-Related Crimes, and Immigration,” said that the charges against Sun and Hu seem to indicate a “classic New York state corruption case.” 

But the allegations, even if they turn out to be true, do not necessarily mean that these individuals posed a threat to the security of the United States.

“It’s not the same as a spy trying to steal U.S. nuclear secrets,” Nowrasteh said. “This case might be used as, ‘Americans should worry more about Chinese espionage.’” In fact, he said, many of these cases, perhaps including this one, have no impact on national security.

Edited by Jim Snyder