California man admits to acting as secret agent for Beijing

The U.S. and China as chess pieces / Photo: Shutterstock, photo editor: Serikzhan Kovlanbayev

A man from California has agreed to plead guilty to operating as an unregistered agent for the Chinese government in Southern California while serving as a campaign advisor to a local political figure, according to a report by The Asahi Shimbun.

Prosecutors from the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Los Angeles have declined to discuss the pending plea agreement with Yaoning «Mike» Sun, a Chinese national who is legally residing in the U.S.

As outlined in the plea agreement, Sun admitted that between 2022 and 2024, he acted on behalf of the People’s Republic of China without informing the U.S. Attorney General, as required under federal law.

Court documents indicate that Chinese officials directed Sun to publish material favorable to Beijing on a website he managed alongside another person who later ran for, and won, a local election in 2022. The identity of that individual has not been disclosed in the filings.

Notably, public records show that Sun was listed as the campaign treasurer for Arcadia City Council candidate Eileen Wang. Following Sun’s arrest in December, Arcadia City Manager Dominic Lazzaretto confirmed that Sun was not formally associated with the city government.