The arrest of a former adviser to the governor of New York underscores efforts to track down Chinese agents in the US

NEW YORK – A secret Chinese police station hiding in New York City. Covert efforts by Communist Party officials to spy on and harass Chinese expatriates. And now allegations that a former adviser to two New York governors is secretly acting as an agent of the Chinese government.

In recent years, the U.S. Department of Justice has launched a wave of prosecutions aimed at tracking down covert agents pursuing Beijing's interests on American soil.

In Brooklyn alone, federal prosecutors have filed at least a dozen such criminal cases against more than 90 people over the past four years. The most recent case was Tuesday's arrest of Linda Sun, who was once deputy chief of staff to Gov. Kathy Hochul and previously an aide to former Gov. Andrew Cuomo.

The indictment against Sun is the most frightening example yet of a threat that U.S. officials have been warning about for years: China's determination to influence American politics and build relationships with politicians believed to have access to the levers of power, even at a local level.

While the public may think of foreign agents as people who spy on military communications or steal state secrets, China is also very keen to exert its influence in less spectacular areas, such as courting the favor of American officials who have control over local land-use regulations or labor issues.

“There is definitely an effort to build relationships, friendships and connections with state and local authorities,” says Adam Hickey, a former senior Justice Department security official who was responsible for enforcing the Foreign Agents Registration Act, which Sun is alleged to have violated.

Prosecutors say Sun – a mid-level official in two Democratic administrations – developed a close relationship with officials at the Chinese consulate in New York and carried out their orders in a way that, while important, would hardly be enough for the plot of a spy novel.

Among other things, she is accused of quietly thwarting efforts by representatives of the Taiwanese government to meet with high-ranking officials of New York State. The Chinese government considers Taiwan to be part of China. She is also said to have encouraged Cuomo and Hochul to make supportive remarks about China, such as thanking Chinese companies for donating medical equipment during the COVID-19 pandemic.

According to the indictment, she solicited a Chinese official for talking points for a video Hochul recorded as vice governor wishing people a happy Lunar New Year. Prosecutors said Sun took responsibility for preventing Hochul from mentioning human rights issues in that video. And according to the indictment, Sun provided unauthorized invitation letters from the governor's office that helped Chinese officials enter the United States.

In return, prosecutors said, Sun received tickets to performances by Chinese art groups and several “Nanjing-style salted ducks” that were sent to her parents' home. Even more lucrative, the indictment says, Sun's husband received help with his business dealings in China that brought millions of dollars to the couple, who owned a $4 million Long Island mansion and a condo in Hawaii.

Sun and her husband Chris Hu pleaded not guilty on Tuesday.

Sun's attorney, Jarrod Schaeffer, said she was “understandably dismayed that these charges have been brought,” but did not elaborate on the charges.

On Wednesday, Hochul described Sun's alleged actions as “an absolute breach of trust between two governments in the national government.”

The alleged efforts to exert foreign influence are part of what FBI and Justice Department officials have described as a broader attempt to manipulate public opinion in China's favor.

“The Chinese government recognizes that politicians who hold smaller roles today can become more influential over time,” FBI Director Christopher Wray said in a speech in January 2022. “That's why they try to develop talent early to ensure that politicians at all levels of government are prepared to make decisions and advocate for Beijing's agenda.”

Justice Department officials have indicted dozens of Chinese nationals over the past five years, but many have remained beyond the reach of American law enforcement.

The defendants include 40 officials from the Ministry of Public Security who are accused of harassing and threatening dissidents, and a group of agents who are said to have stalked Chinese living in the United States in an attempt to force them to return to China to face criminal prosecution.

A Chinese-American scholar known as a pro-democracy activist was convicted in New York earlier this month for collecting information on dissidents and passing it on to his home country's government.

In 2022, a Chinese government official was charged with plotting to undermine the candidacy of a little-known congressional candidate in New York by seeking out or even fabricating derogatory information that could prevent his election. The allegation was part of a larger plot that led to charges against five people, including espionage against a Chinese national living in Los Angeles and conspiracy to destroy his artwork.

Two U.S. citizens were charged last year with setting up a secret police station in Manhattan under the direction and control of the Chinese government.

A spokesman for the Chinese embassy, ​​Liu Pengyu, dismissed the concerns as exaggerated and accused the US government and the media of “frequently exaggerating stories about the so-called 'Chinese agents,' many of which later turned out to be untrue.”

China has long argued that US authorities are simply discrediting the country's work in the international fight against crime, such as “Operation Fox Hunt,” a nearly decade-long campaign ostensibly aimed at tracking down fugitive Chinese, including corrupt officials.

It further claims that the police stations reported across North America and Europe are not law enforcement agencies at all, but are providing routine services to Chinese citizens, including renewing Chinese driver's licenses.

Yaqiu Wang, research director for China, Hong Kong and Taiwan at Freedom House, an organization that tracks cross-border repression, praised efforts to counter Chinese activities that she says undermine human rights and democracy.

Last year, a congressional committee warned that Beijing was operating an extensive network of organizations seeking to influence U.S. universities, think tanks, civic groups, other “prominent individuals and institutions,” and public opinion in general.

But Wang warned that the federal government's efforts must be targeted and proportionate given the civil rights concerns raised by the Chinese-American community and others.

In 2018, the Trump-era Justice Department launched a nationwide effort called the “China Initiative” against Chinese espionage at American universities.

But the initiative was renamed early in the Biden administration after numerous unsuccessful prosecutions of researchers and concerns from some of the country's top universities that the program was harming academic research and amounting to ethnic profiling.

“No American should have to live in fear of having their entire life turned upside down because of false accusations, unjustified racial discrimination or ugly xenophobia,” California Democrat Judy Chu said in July alongside Feng “Franklin” Tao, a Chinese-American professor whose espionage case was dismissed by a Colorado judge earlier this year. “There is no place for these prejudices in our federal government and in our country.”

___

Associated Press reporters Jennifer Peltz and Anthony Izaguirre in New York contributed to this article. Tucker and Tang reported from Washington.

___

Follow Philip Marcelo on twitter.com/philmarcelo.