Southern California Political Operative Yaoning 'Mike' Sun Sentenced to 48 Months for Acting as a Covert Agent of China
On February 9, 2026, Yaoning “Mike” Sun, 65, of Chino Hills in San Bernardino County, California, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge R. Gary Klausner to 48 months in federal prison. The Justice Department announced on February 10 that Sun was convicted of acting as an illegal agent of the People's Republic of China without notifying the Attorney General as required by law, including while serving as the campaign advisor for a candidate elected to a Southern California city council. He pleaded guilty in October 2025 to one count of acting as an illegal agent of a foreign government, in a case heard in the Central District of California.
According to court documents, from at least 2022 to January 2024, Sun knowingly acted in the United States at the direction and control of PRC government officials. He coordinated with U.S.-based individuals to promote the PRC's interests, including orchestrating a team to help elect a politician identified in court documents as “Individual 1,” whose campaign for a city council seat in a Southern California city he advised in 2022; Individual 1 was elected in November 2022. From 2020 through 2023, Sun and Individual 1 also operated a purported news website for the local Chinese American community, posting pro-PRC content at the direction of PRC officials.
Court documents also show that Sun closely surveilled the then-President of Taiwan during her April 2023 visit to Southern California, sending real-time updates on her movements to an official at the PRC consulate general in Los Angeles, along with photographs of individuals protesting in support of and in opposition to her. In a February 2023 report to PRC officials, Sun described his past service in the People's Liberation Army and requested $80,000 to fund a pro-PRC demonstration at a Fourth of July parade in Washington, D.C. Prosecutors said in a sentencing memorandum that Sun's primary co-conspirator, John Chen, was a high-level member of the PRC intelligence apparatus; Chen was sentenced in November 2024 in the Southern District of New York to 20 months in prison for acting as an illegal agent of the PRC and conspiracy to bribe a public official.
Assistant Attorney General for National Security John A. Eisenberg said Sun for years received and executed taskings from Chinese government officials, disseminated Chinese propaganda and surveilled groups China viewed as threatening, in a brazen violation of U.S. sovereignty. First Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli for the Central District of California said federal law enforcement will not allow hostile foreign nations to infiltrate the governance of the nation's political bodies. The FBI investigated the case.
Source: U.S. Department of Justice
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：位于美国华盛顿的联邦调查局总部胡佛大楼（资料照片）。ajay_suresh 摄，CC BY 2.0，经 Wikimedia Commons；联邦固定图库标准图。 / Photo: The J. Edgar Hoover Building, headquarters of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, in Washington, D.C. (file photo). Photo by ajay_suresh, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons; federal fixed-library image.
- 2024-12-19California Political Operative Yaoning 'Mike' Sun Arrested on Charges of Acting as an Illegal Agent of China
- 2026-02-10Southern California Political Operative Yaoning 'Mike' Sun Sentenced to 48 Months for Acting as a Covert Agent of ChinaThis story
