Aide To Governer Hochul Arrested As Chinese Agent – How Many More Americans Do The Chinese Own?

“China is engaged in a highly sophisticated malign foreign influence campaign, and its methods include bribery, blackmail, and covert deals. 
FBI Director Wray, 2020

Linda Sun is the former Deputy Chief of Staff to New York Governor Kathy Hochul. She was also previously a senior staffer for former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo.

Linda Sun has been indicted by the Justice Department for violating and conspiring to violate the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA), visa fraud, alien smuggling, and money laundering conspiracy.  She is alleged to have acted on behalf of the government of the People’s Republic of China (the “PRC”) and the Chinese Communist Party (the “CCP”). Sun’s husband and co-defendant Chris Hu was also charged with money laundering conspiracy, as well as conspiracy to commit bank fraud and misuse of means of identification.

Breon Peace, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, Matthew G. Olsen, Assistant Attorney General of the Justice Department’s National Security Division, Christie M. Curtis, Acting Assistant Director in Charge, Federal Bureau of Investigation, New York Field Office (FBI), and Thomas M. Fattorusso, Special Agent in Charge, Internal Revenue Service-Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI), announced the prosecution.

“As alleged, while appearing to serve the people of New York as Deputy Chief of Staff within the New York State Executive Chamber, the defendant and her husband actually worked to further the interests of the Chinese government and the CCP,” stated United States Attorney Breon Peace.  “The illicit scheme enriched the defendant’s family to the tune of millions of dollars.  Our Office will act decisively to prosecute those who serve as undisclosed agents of a foreign government.”

“As alleged in the indictment, Linda Sun, a former New York State government employee, acted as an undisclosed agent of the Chinese government while her husband, Christopher Hu, facilitated the transfer of millions of dollars in kickbacks for personal gain. Sun wielded her position of influence among executives to covertly promote PRC and CCP agendas, directly threatening our country’s national security. The FBI is committed to protect the American people from any threat actors who seek to influence officials at the direction of foreign entities,” stated FBI Acting Assistant Director Curtis.

“Sun is alleged to be an undisclosed agent of the PRC and CCP, using Chinese money and her influence within the state of New York to benefit the Chinese government. Sun and her husband then laundered millions of dollars for the foreign country and used the monetary benefits of this scheme to buy luxury vehicles and million dollars properties here in New York,” Thomas M. Fattorusso, Special Agent in Charge of IRS CI New York.  “It is with the unwavering determination of federal law enforcement to root-out foreign agents and their schemes that Sun and Hu will now face justice for their criminal acts.”

Assets are recruited by foreign governments for at least two purposes. Some provide sensitive intelligence on military secrets or plans and intentions. Others like Sun are agents of influence. They steer policy. The make sure target governments take actions beneficial to their handlers. They work to further the interests of their paymasters – not their fellow citizens.

That was Sun. It is unquestionably a good thing she was arrested. The bad news is that there are a lot more folks that need to go to prison and they remain untouched.

Some time back the case of Congressman Eric Swalwell attracted a lot of attention.  Christine Fang, otherwise known as “Fang Fang”, was a reported Chinese intelligence officer who had cozied up to Swalwell, raised money for his campaign and attended numerous campaign events. She also had an alleged sexual relationship with Swalwell.

A perfunctory ethics investigation was conducted. No action was taken. Swalwell is still in Congress. Fang was determined to have been working multiple other targets including Midwestern mayors and at least one other member of Congress. Once her cover was blown she left the country.

For many years a staffer in Senator Dianne Feinstein’s San Francisco field office was reporting to Chinese intelligence. The spy was “run” by officials based at China’s San Francisco Consulate. He was ultimately fired but never prosecuted.

There is nothing unusual about any of this. In fact, this is the norm. While Joe Biden was Vice-President his son Hunter Biden was found to be in touch with a man named Patrick Ho, a senior official with a company called CEFC China Energy. CEFC was known to be part of China’s “elite capture” program. It did not invest money to turn a profit. It invested money to attract and compromise influential foreigners in target countries and bend them to Beijing’s will.

The FBI investigated Ho’s activities. He was arrested and prosecuted and imprisoned – for bribing African officials on U.S. soil. The FBI investigation established that Ho was pursuing precisely the same course of action with Hunter and strongly suggested that a significant portion of the money coming through Ho from the Chinese government to Hunter was ending up in Joe Biden’s pockets. Even as Joe began his run for President, the FBI buried the evidence and walked away. When Ho was prosecuted the Department of Justice even went so far as to redact Hunter’s name from documents introduced as evidence in open court.

The modus operandi in all these operations is the same. You do not wait until your target has achieved success and climbed to the top of the heap. You approach them and compromise them when they are most vulnerable, while they are still trying to make it. In politics that means you go local. You go after mayors, state legislators, young Congressmen who aspire to be President and guys who were always the laughing stock of the U.S. Senate but have now come to believe they can wear the crown..

The occasional arrest of a staffer does not begin to address the underlying problem. The Chinese are buying the American “elite” on an industrial scale. Want to know why we won’t push back on the Chinese in Asia, why there are no U.S. aircraft carriers at sea in the Pacific even as Beijing is encircling Taiwan or why we continue to gut our industrial base and adopt “green” technology that makes us ever more dependent on supplies of rare earth minerals controlled by Beijing?

Ask the Chinese and the Americans they own.