Linda Sun, ex-aide to New York governor, charged with acting as Chinese agent

A former aide to New York Governor Kathy Hochul has been charged with acting as an undisclosed agent of the Chinese government, federal prosecutors in Brooklyn said in an indictment that also accused several officials in Beijing’s New York City consulate as co-conspirators.

Prosecutors said Linda Sun, a naturalised US citizen born in China, was arrested and was expected to be presented in court later in the day. Sun’s husband Chris Hu – a business owner and also a naturalised US citizen originally from China – also faces criminal charges.

While working in Hochul’s administration for about a decade, Sun, 41, blocked representatives of Taiwan’s government from meeting state officials, and attempted to arrange for a high-level New York state official to visit China, according to the indictment filed last month and unsealed on Tuesday.

Prosecutors accused Sun of “changing [the Hochul administration’s] messaging regarding issues of importance to the PRC and the CCP”, using the acronyms for the People’s Republic of China and the Chinese Communist Party, respectively.

“Sun repeatedly violated internal rules and protocols within the … governor’s office to provide improper benefits to PRC and CCP representatives, including by providing unauthorized invitation letters from the office of the … governor that were used to facilitate travel by PRC government officials into the United States for meetings with [New York] government officials,” it added.