Secretly Acting as an Agent of the CCP, California Resident Yaoning “Mike” Sun Sentenced to Four Years

The U.S. Department of Justice building in Washington, D.C. (Li Sha / Dajiyuan)

[People News] Yaoning “Mike” Sun, a resident of San Bernardino County, California, was sentenced Monday (Feb. 9) to 48 months in federal prison for illegally acting as an agent of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) government while serving as a campaign consultant for a political candidate. That candidate was later elected as a city council member in Southern California.

According to a report by Voice of America, publicly available online information shows that Sun, 65, had long been involved in cultural and arts exchanges with China. He directed Lunar New Year galas in the Chinese American community and participated in events in the U.S. marking anniversaries of the CCP’s founding and the establishment of the People’s Republic of China. He was arrested in December 2024 and pleaded guilty in October 2025 to one count of acting as an illegal agent of a foreign government. A federal district judge announced his sentence on Monday.

In a press release issued Monday, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California under the U.S. Department of Justice stated that court documents show Sun knowingly acted within the United States as an agent of the CCP and one of its officials from at least 2022 through January 2024, without notifying the U.S. Attorney General as required by law.

According to the DOJ, under the direction and control of CCP officials, Sun coordinated with individuals in the U.S. to advance the interests of the PRC. This included organizing a team to help a political figure run for office and promoting pro-CCP messaging in the United States.

The DOJ did not disclose the name of the political figure.

The DOJ also said that during then–Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen’s April 2023 visit to Southern California, Sun directly reported her movements to CCP officials. Throughout 2023 and 2024, he remained in contact with an official at the Chinese Consulate in Los Angeles regarding Taiwan-related activities in Southern California.

From 2020 to 2023, Sun and the political figure co-operated a news website claiming to serve the local Chinese American community. They took direction from CCP government officials and published content supportive of the PRC.

Throughout 2022, Sun also served as a campaign consultant for that political figure, who was elected to a Southern California city council in November of that year.

In his plea agreement, Sun admitted that in December 2022 he attended a meeting in Southern California with the political figure present, during which CCP officials were informed that the group was a team dedicated to advancing CCP interests.

The plea agreement also states that in February 2023, Sun drafted a report to CCP officials requesting additional funding and assignments. In the report, he described his background, including prior service in the Chinese military, and claimed to have led delegations of well-known Americans and cultural figures to visit China. He also stated that he was committed to resisting forces that undermine U.S.–China friendship and “split China.” Sun further admitted that during the 2022 U.S. midterm elections, he organized a team to help the political figure—whom he described as a “rising political star”—win a seat on the city council.

The DOJ said Sun’s report also addressed several issues concerning so-called “anti-China forces” overseas, including opposition to independence for Taiwan, Tibet, and Xinjiang, as well as matters related to Falun Gong. He proposed using “part of our professional core team organized in Los Angeles” to counter these forces. For this purpose, Sun applied to the CCP government for $80,000 to fund displays supporting the PRC during the July 4 Independence Day parade in Washington, D.C.

“Federal law enforcement will not allow hostile foreign powers to infiltrate our political institutions,” said Bill Essayli, First Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Central District of California, in the DOJ press release. “In the face of the CCP’s persistent intelligence activities in our country, we must be equally persistent in our efforts to safeguard, protect, and defend America’s security.”

“When Americans vote for elected officials, they expect those officials to represent the interests of voters, not the interests of foreign adversaries like the CCP,” said Roman Rozhavsky, Assistant Director of the Counterintelligence Division of the FBI. “Sun exploited his role as a campaign consultant in an attempt to undermine our political process and democratic system for the benefit of the Chinese Communist Party.”

“For years, Sun accepted and carried out assignments from CCP government officials, distorting our public narrative by spreading PRC propaganda and monitoring groups in the United States that the CCP views as threats to its interests, as part of an intimidation campaign,” said John A. Eisenberg, Assistant Attorney General for National Security at the DOJ, in a separate statement. “His actions represent a blatant violation of our national sovereignty. This sentence reflects our commitment to bringing to justice those who seek to extend the CCP government’s authoritarian reach onto U.S. soil.”

The U.S. House Select Committee on the Strategic Competition Between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party posted on X Tuesday: “This case is exactly what this Committee has warned about for years: the Chinese Communist Party actively targets the American political system all the way down to local elections.”

Prosecutors also said that Sun’s primary co-conspirator during the period he acted as a covert CCP agent was California resident Jun Chen, also known as John Chen. Prosecutors described Chen as a “high-level member of a CCP intelligence apparatus” who frequently attended elite CCP events, including military parades, and had met CCP leader Xi Jinping. According to prosecutors, based on Sun’s own reports and communications between Chen and CCP officials, Sun had been Chen’s key assistant in the United States for decades.

Chen, 73, was arrested in May 2023 on charges of acting as an illegal CCP agent and conspiring to bribe a public official. After pleading guilty, he was sentenced in October 2024 to 20 months in federal prison.