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Former adviser to the governor of New York has been accused of acting as an "agent" of the Chinese government.
Another espionage scandal in the United States surfaced in early September.
Linda Sun, a former aide to New York Governor Kathy Hochul, is the major actor in this affair.
But let's go in order.
Governments worldwide face a persistent challenge in preventing foreign espionage within their own ranks, particularly when employing aides, consuls, and other trusted officials.
Despite advanced security measures, spies can infiltrate by exploiting personal vulnerabilities, financial incentives, or ideological differences.
A notable example is the case of Aldrich Ames, a former CIA officer, whose espionage activities for the Soviet Union went undetected for years due to inadequate internal oversight and poor communication between intelligence agencies.
This article explores why governments fail to safeguard against such infiltration and the critical steps needed to strengthen national security.
Linda Sun was born in Nanjing in 1983.
She went to the United States from China with her parents when she was five years old, and she later became a naturalised citizen.
She earned a political science degree in 2006 and a master's degree in education from Columbia University in 2009.
In 2009, Sun started her career in public service in the New York State Legislature. She held a number of posts there, including chief of staff to the now-U.S. Representative Congresswoman Grace Meng.
In 2012, Governor Andrew Cuomo's administration appointed Sun as Director of Asian American Affairs and Queens Regional Representative.
Following that, Empire State Development appointed her as director of external affairs, overseeing the state's economic development.
She also had a brief stint as the New York State Department of Financial Services' deputy chief of staff for administration before joining Governor Kathy Hochul's staff.
After almost 15 months, she departed Hochul's executive chamber to take a job with the New York Department of Labour in November 2022.
She worked as a campaign manager for Austin Cheng, a Democrat who unsuccessfully ran for Congress in New York's 3rd Congressional District, after leaving the Hochul administration.
Linda Sun rose through the ranks to become the governor's deputy chief of staff in approximately 14 years.
US officials, however, claim that Sun surreptitiously shared internal papers with Beijing and prevented Taiwanese diplomats from contacting the nation's government by using her position to support Chinese officials.
The indictment accuses Linda Sun of both conspiring and violating the Foreign Agent Registration Act. The indictment also accuses her of visa fraud, alien smuggling, and money laundering conspiracy.
Her spouse, Christopher Hua, faces accusations of conspiring to commit bank fraud and money laundering in addition to identity theft.
In response to the allegations, federal agents raided and searched the couple's Long Island residence.
"Letters of invitation without authorization."
Based on official employment records and her LinkedIn page, Sun worked for the US state government for almost 15 years, first holding roles in Cuomo's administration before moving on to become Hochul's deputy chief of staff.
The US Attorney's Office in New York claims that she participated in political activities to advance Chinese interests while working as an undisclosed agent of the People's Republic of China and the Chinese Communist Party.
According to the accusation, Sun secured "unauthorised invitation letters" from the governor's office to bring Chinese government officials to the United States to meet with New York state officials.
Several of her alleged offenses pertain to Taiwan and the COVID-19 pandemic, a period in which multiple US officials targeted China following the virus's discovery in Wuhan.
Authorities claim that Sun changed both Governors Cuomo's and Hochul's "messaging regarding issues of importance" to the Chinese government and prevented members of the Taiwanese government from meeting with senior state officials in New York.
Following the pandemic, Sun blocked Taiwan's attempt to receive public recognition for providing masks but also made sure that Governor Cuomo officially acknowledged Chinese government officials for delivering 1,000 ventilators and other medical supplies to the city.
Prosecutors claim that she was so blatant in her attempts that she once discreetly brought a Chinese official to a private state government call regarding the public health response to the illness.
I wonder how she managed to get away with it for so long.
Naturally, there will be an ongoing investigation into this, but it looks like Sun went to great lengths to evade detection, allegedly lying to the FBI, the New York State Office of the Inspector General, and other authorities when they questioned her, and taking other actions to conceal her involvement.
The indictment against Ms. Sun includes the top officials of the US government with whom she attempted to prevent Taiwanese delegates from meeting or speaking.
In a 2016 message to a Chinese consular officer, Sun is reported to have boasted, "It's all been taken care of satisfactorily," after successfully swaying a prominent New York lawmaker away from an event sponsored by Taiwan.
The island's president even participated in a protest against pro-Beijing activists' visit to New York City in 2019.
She worked behind the scenes until January 2021 to remove references to Beijing's imprisonment of Uyghurs, an ethnic minority in Xinjiang Province that is primarily Muslim.
Sun questioned the Chinese officials about their desired "talking points" when they asked Governor Hochul to create a video for the Lunar New Year.
Naturally, Su handled what was going to be stated right away, making sure that inappropriate things were spoken.
The Chinese officials wrote, "Mostly holiday wishes and hope for friendship and cooperation." "Not overly political at all."
Sun later informed a second Chinese official that she disagreed with Ms. Hochul's speechwriter about the removal of a reference to the "Uyghur situation" from an earlier version of the governor's address.
In 2023, as a labor department employee in New York, Sun gave a Chinese official a framed copy of Governor Kathy Hochul's Lunar New Year proclamation.
Governor Hochul's office did not approve the declaration or follow the correct procedures.
In addition, Sun composed fictitious invitations for Chinese politicians to visit the United States and penned an unauthorised employment letter to include a fellow citizen on the Asian American advisory board of the governor of New York.
US officials claim that Sun and her spouse reaped significant benefits from the influence activities, both domestically and internationally.
Her husband's Chinese-affiliated company entrusts her with arranging multimillion-dollar commercial transactions.
According to federal authorities, Sun and Hu allegedly used this money to purchase a number of high-end vehicles, such as:
The property also includes a condominium in Honolulu, valued between US$1.9 million and US$2.1 million, and a five-bedroom home in Manhasset, Long Island, valued between US$3.6 million and US$4.1 million.
However, she never registered as a foreign agent or reported the benefits she received from China, which is required of New York state government employees.
The presents also included:
The accusation claims that Ms. Sun received the duck delicacy at least sixteen times, including a direct delivery to her parents' house.
Sun's spouse, Chris Hu, faced accusations of conspiring to launder money, misusing identification, and committing bank fraud. He also had a wine shop and seafood business in Queens.
According to the indictment, Hu assisted in the transfer of millions of dollars in bribes for his own benefit, and Sun secretly promoted Chinese government and Chinese Communist Party programs among executives, endangering our nation's national security.
Furthermore, it is said that Hu used the photo on the relative's driver's licence to register a bank account in the relative's name in order to launder money unlawfully.
Nevertheless, Hu was the only user of these accounts.
Sun and Hu have filed not-guilty pleas to all allegations, which include conspiracy and violation of the Foreign Agents Registration Act, money laundering conspiracy, visa fraud, and alien smuggling.
Prosecutors seized their homes, vehicles, $210,000 in cash, and funds from several additional accounts that Hu was purportedly in charge of.
Hu was freed from detention on US$500,000 bail, and Sun was freed on US$1.5 million bail.
The Chinese consulate instructed the two not to communicate with them and forced them to surrender their passports. The Chinese consulate has set September 25, 2024, as their next court date.
The US and China have long denied any espionage or influence-peddling allegations against one another, claiming that the other has been attempting to obtain intelligence and sway decisions for many years.
In light of China's expanding global influence and its emergence as a power that seeks to challenge Washington, the rhetoric has only gotten louder.
Both sides have been stepping up their arrests of alleged foreign government employees, and they are checking an increasing number of people for possible espionage activity in the military and technology sectors.
According to CIA Director William Burns, the spy organisation is putting a lot more effort into addressing geopolitical competition, especially with China.
In response, China's Ministry of State Security said that Washington was "expanding the confrontation against China" by hiring and training more Mandarin speakers, and that the CIA had more than doubled the percentage of its overall budget aimed at China in the last two years alone.
We can only guess how many more espionage incidents we may never know about, even though the number is growing daily.
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