Suspected Chinese Spy Is Fiancé Of California Councilwoman

Authored by Eva Fu via The Epoch Times,

A California councilwoman is the fiancée of a man accused of peddling political influence on behalf of the Chinese regime, court records show.

The man, Mike Sun, has allegedly worked with a recently sentenced Chinese agent to advance the Chinese regime’s political interests in Los Angeles. Court documents suggest the two have worked closely for years to align U.S. policy interests with Beijing on sensitive issues, with the Chinese agent Chen Jun telling Chinese officials that Sun—and the councilwoman—were part of a “basic team dedicated for us.”

Sun is also known as Sun Yaoning. Court records show that he is a former Chinese army member. He was the campaign manager for Eileen Wang in 2022, the year she won the city council seat for Arcadia in Los Angeles County with nearly two-thirds of the vote, prosecutors said.

Helping Wang win the midterm election, Sun said in a draft report to Chinese officials, was his proudest achievement as someone who “persist[s] in resisting any hostile forces that undermine the friendship of US-China relations, and Chinese secessionist forces,” according to federal prosecutors.

A review of the court records, public information, and business filings reveals the personal connections between Wang and Sun, who have engaged in several ventures together, including a U.S.-based media group, business entities, and multiple pro-Beijing organizations.

One of them is the American Southwest Chamber of Commerce, a Los Angeles nonprofit Wang founded in 2018 that purports to “promote communication of American southwest people of China,” according to business filings.

Wang confirmed her engagement to Sun in a court filing over a 2023 defamation lawsuit with Michelle Wu, a certified public accountant who had served as the president of the chamber. Wu sued Wang, Sun, and several other individuals with the organization, saying they had falsely accused her of pilfering the organization’s funds.

“Defendant Sun is Wang’s fiancé and is engaged to be married to Wang, further solidifying their close personal and professional relationship,” Wu stated in her complaint. She didn’t respond to an emailed request for comment.

Wang acknowledged the engagement while refuting the allegations in a subsequent filing.

FBI agents arrested Sun on Dec. 19 and charged the Chino Hills man with acting as an illegal Chinese agent. While the federal complaint didn’t name Wang and referred to the councilwoman as “Individual 1,” the description of Wang from the filing matches her public biographical details.

According to the complaint, Sun’s last registered physical address with the Department of Motor Vehicles is a home that the politician owned.

Incorporation filings show that Sun and Wang had co-run a mainly Chinese-language media outlet called U.S. News Center, whose last post was dated Dec. 16. The site has run a series of articles featuring Wang both as a city council candidate and later as an elected official. One February 2022 article, labeled under the category “top elite Chinese elected officials,” noted Wang’s support toward a public charity and put her as someone who “spares no efforts in serving the community.”

The two have interacted with each other’s posts on LinkedIn, and Wang’s name has appeared as an author on the media site with hundreds of entries.

Wang has also paid Sun for event, meeting, and travel expenses, her campaign filings show.

‘New Political Star’

Born in Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan Province in southwestern China, Wang had attended college in Los Angeles, according to Chinese language media reports. Prior to entering politics, she ran a tutoring center called “Little Stanford Academy” for students from kindergarten to 12th grade.

In campaign rallies in 2022, Wang had appealed to Taiwanese voters by highlighting her family roots. She mentioned that her grandfather was a lieutenant general and one of the earliest cadets in Whampoa Military Academy, the school established by Sun Yat-sen, who Taiwan reveres as the founding father of its democracy.

While Wang’s campaign garnered Taiwanese support, prosecutors said Chinese operatives have plotted to influence politicians like her to act in line with Beijing on issues such as Taiwan.

Sun had worked with Chen Jun—a Chinese agent sentenced to 20 months in prison for bribing the IRS against persecuted faith group Falun Gong—to draft a report for Chinese officials on Wang’s election win in 2022, according to court filings.

The IRS in Washington, on Aug. 12, 2024. Madalina Vasiliu/The Epoch Times

In conversations about the draft, Chen allegedly called Wang a “new political star,” and instructed Sun to enumerate his and Sun’s “past struggle fighting Taiwanese independence forces” and Falun Gong practitioners in the local area.

Chen had proposed a plan to disrupt a new congressman’s upcoming visit to Taiwan, according to prosecutors. In February 2023, they flagged Taiwanese and Falun Gong participation in the Rose Parade and Independence Day Parade, according to the federal complaint. They allegedly promised to counter that by creating their own drum band and float, and they applied for $80,000 in funding from Chinese officials.

“Once the project is approved, must execute well,” Chen wrote to Sun, who responded in the affirmative, according to court documents.

Learning from Chen about Wang’s election victory, three Chinese officials seemed enthusiastic. They responded variously with salute emojis, smiley faces, and thumbs up, the filings show.

Chen, according to the complaint, paid special attention to Wang’s “friendly relationship” with a U.S. congressperson, whose name authorities redacted from the filing, and noted Wang has “lots of contact with mainstream politicians.” Chen also commented on Wang’s familial history, remarking that her grandfather was “very famous,” according to quoted conversations.

Rep. Judy Chu (D-Calif.) recognized Wang as one of the 2024 Congressional Women of the Year, which honors “women nominated by people in their own cities and communities,” according to a press release. Chu noted in a speech Wang’s leadership roles in serving as president of the American Southwest Chamber of Commerce. The Epoch Times has reached out to Chu’s office for comment.

China Trips

Records gathered by prosecutors show that in 2023, Wang and Sun had planned a trip together through six cities across China. Sun told Chen he would be meeting with a Chinese leader, likely part of the Chinese intelligence apparatus, to present his work report, according to the FBI agent.

A photo of Chen Jun as appeared on his driver’s license. Department of Justice

That discussion happened weeks before Chen’s arrest over the IRS bribery case.

Three months later, in August 2023, Wang flew from Los Angeles to Hong Kong; she returned on the same flight with Sun from Shanghai to Los Angeles that September, the complaint said.

Chinese media reports show that Wang had engaged with Chinese authorities as the head of the American Southwest Chamber of Commerce.

In April 2019, Wang traveled to Chengdu with Sun to celebrate the creation of a Sichuan branch of the chamber. Officials from the provincial Returned Overseas Chinese Federation, a Chinese Communist Party organ that targets the Chinese diaspora, spoke at the opening ceremony and posed for photos with the pair, according to the reports. The reports quoted Wang promising to “proactively plan and organize” activities to advance the U.S.-China interactions in areas such as economy, education, culture, technology, and medicine.

The two made another China trip in November of the same year to make donations to 10 poor students in the Sichuan city of Shehong. The activity received “strong support” from the city’s United Front Department, Beijing’s overseas political influence network that the Returned Overseas Chinese Federation is part of, according to a post on the provincial federation website.

“I’ve been in the United States for over two decades, but I often go back to China,” Sun was cited as saying. He said there are many Chinese immigrants like him that “hope to contribute to their home country to the best of their ability.”

The Epoch Times has contacted Wang for comment.

On Dec. 23, Arcadia City Manager Dominic Lazzaretto published a letter to the community to address the FBI investigation into Sun and his associates.

He said that “Sun had no involvement whatsoever with City of Arcadia business or decision-making” and that the City of Arcadia “supports a thorough and comprehensive investigation by our federal partners into these serious allegations.”

Wang has spoken to the FBI, according to Lazzaretto. She hasn’t been arrested or charged with any crime, and has stated that she “intends to fully cooperate with federal authorities throughout this process,” he said.