U.S. officials on Thursday arrested a Chinese man prosecutors say was at the center of an effort to influence local politics in California, charging him with acting as an illegal foreign agent over his role in getting a politician elected to a City Council position in the Los Angeles area.
Prosecutors say Mike Sun, also identified as Yaoning Sun, 64, worked closely with another man, John Chen, who was sentenced in November to 20 months in prison for being an agent of China and bribery. The two discussed Mr. Sun’s effort to get the politician elected in 2022. Mr. Chen, who is identified in court documents as Jun Chen, asked Mr. Sun to prepare a report about the candidate that was sent to Chinese officials, according to a criminal complaint made public Thursday. The most recent draft of the report included a request for $80,000 from China to support pro-Beijing activities in the United States.
Mr. Sun is scheduled to appear in court Friday afternoon. It was not immediately clear if he had a lawyer. A phone number registered to Sun Yaoning was not in service.
Mr. Sun’s arrest and the sentencing in New York of Mr. Chen are part of an effort by federal prosecutors to curb attempts by China to influence local politicians in the United States. After setbacks in extending its influence in Washington, the Chinese government has turned to America’s cities and states, prosecutors say, hoping to nurture support for causes important to Beijing, such as curbing calls for autonomy for Taiwan, opposing any democracy movement in Hong Kong and combating the fiercely anti-Communist Falun Gong spiritual movement.
Officials say that the Chinese government is reaching into smaller local elections as a long-term investment: Successful local officials often seek higher office and can make introductions to more senior politicians.
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The arrest of Mr. Sun in Southern California suggests an expanding scope of Chinese government efforts to influence American elections, following a Times investigation focusing on a New York man with a criminal backround, John Chan, who has close ties to the local Chinese consulate and worked to shape election outcomes at the city, state and congressional levels. To build those ties, the Chinese government can dangle money, access to its huge domestic market, even pandas.
“We’ve seen a trend in which officials of the People’s Republic of China seek to influence the political system of our country, and they are doing so by taking a broad approach, including government officials who may be local, who may not be yet on a national stage,” Martin Estrada, the U.S. attorney in Los Angeles, told reporters on a call.
Mr. Estrada noted that Mr. Sun and Mr. Chen had claimed credit for getting a “rising star” elected in California, someone they hoped would “continue to ascend within the political system.”
“So it’s definitely a long game approach that we are seeing from the People’s Republic of China,” Mr. Estrada said.
The politician for whom Mr. Sun served as campaign manager was referred to in the criminal complaint as “individual 1” because that person has not been charged, Mr. Estrada said. Campaign finance and other records show that a man named Yaoning Sun has worked closely with Eileen Wang, a councilwoman in Arcadia, a city in the Los Angeles area, whose biographical details match the description outlined in the complaint.
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Mr. Sun briefly shows up on Ms. Wang’s 2022 campaign filings as her treasurer and was reimbursed by her campaign for meetings, a fund-raiser and travel expenses. Ms. Wang won election to her seat that year, with more than 60 percent of the vote. Mr. Sun and Ms. Wang are also the officers of the American Southwest Chamber of Commerce USA, a nonprofit established in 2018 to “promote Chinese community small business.” An Instagram feed with Mr. Sun’s name has nearly 175 videos and photos calling on voters to support Ms. Wang.
Prosecutors also said that Mr. Sun’s last registered physical address with the Department of Motor Vehicles was a home owned by the local politician.
Ms. Wang has not been accused of any wrongdoing. And it is not clear from the complaint that Ms. Wang was aware of the conversations Mr. Sun and Mr. Chen were allegedly having between themselves and with Chinese government officials about her candidacy. Nor is it obvious from Ms. Wang’s social media posts or the criminal complaint against Mr. Sun that Ms. Wang is pro-Beijing. A recent entry on a Facebook account with her name and photo, for example, discusses a meeting she said she had in late July with a visiting official from Taiwan, the island democracy that China claims as its own. Beijing bristles when American lawmakers meet with Taiwan officials.
Ms. Wang did not immediately return a phone call and a text to her cellphone or an email seeking comment.
Last month, after pleading guilty, Mr. Chen — Mr. Sun’s alleged co-conspirator — was sentenced after, prosecutors say, he and a co-conspirator hatched a plot to repress members of Falun Gong in the United States and bribe an I.R.S. agent to help revoke the group’s tax-exempt status.
In the new complaint unsealed in Los Angeles on Thursday, Mr. Chen is described as an intermediary between Mr. Sun and Chinese government officials, to whom Mr. Chen bragged about assembling “a basic team dedicated for us,” referring to Mr. Sun and the elected official in Los Angeles County.
Mr. Chen also told a cellmate that a Chinese spy agency had given him $250,000 to come to the United States 30 years ago and had then paid him $52,000 a month, according to the complaint. In his conversations with a Chinese government official, Mr. Chen called Mr. Sun “my helping hand in the Chinese community since 1997.”
In a memo the two men prepared for an unnamed “big boss” in the Chinese Communist Party, Mr. Chen and Mr. Sun asked for $80,000 as part of an effort to promote pro-China activities in the United States; they also planned to ask for “100 drums” and uniforms in “China Red” that could be used in parades, the complaint said.
Prosecutors say Mr. Chen instructed Mr. Sun to claim credit for their electoral success, and Mr. Sun wrote: “Most proudly of all, during the 2022 U.S. midterm elections, I orchestrated and organized my team to win the election for City Council member candidate [Individual 1],” the complaint said.