A 65-year-old Chino Hills man has been sentenced to 48 months in federal prison for acting as an illegal agent of the People’s Republic of China, according to the US Attorney’s Office.
Yaoning “Mike” Sun was sentenced by US District Judge R. Gary Klausner after pleading guilty in October 2025 to one count of serving as an unlawful agent of a foreign government. According to the source, Sun worked as a campaign strategist for a political candidate elected to the Southern California municipal council.
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“Federal law enforcement will not allow hostile foreign nations to infiltrate the governance of our nation’s political bodies,” said First Assistant United States Attorney Bill Essayli. “The relentlessness of PRC intelligence operations in our country must be met by equal relentlessness on our part to secure, protect, and defend the United States.”
Assistant Director Roman Rozhavsky of the FBI’s Counterintelligence and Espionage Division noted, “By exploiting his position as a campaign advisor, Yaoning Sun attempted to undermine our political processes and democratic institutions for the benefit of the Chinese Communist Party.”
Court filings show that Sun acted as the PRC’s agent from at least 2022 to January 2024 without notifying the Attorney General, as required by US law. Sun, under the supervision of PRC officials, collaborated with individuals in the United States to advance the PRC’s interests, including organizing a team to help elect a politician known as “Individual 1” and pushing pro-PRC propaganda.
Sun also monitored the then-president of Taiwan’s movements on her April 2023 visit to Southern California, transmitting them to PRC officials. Furthermore, Sun and Individual 1 ran a fictitious news website for the local Chinese American community, posting pro-PRC content as directed by PRC officials.
According to Sun’s guilty bargain, in December 2022, he attended a meeting in Southern California with a group that included Individual 1, which was defined as a “team dedicated” to PRC goals. Sun also submitted a report to PRC officials in February 2023, detailing his activities, and requested $80,000 to support a pro-PRC demonstration.
Throughout 2023 and 2024, Sun spoke with a PRC consular official in Los Angeles about Taiwan-related activities. During President Tsai Ing-Wen’s April 2023 visit to Southern California, Sun provided real-time reports and images to the consulate.
Prosecutors claimed Sun worked covertly in the United States with John Chen, a high-ranking member of the PRC intelligence establishment. In November 2024, Chen was sentenced to 20 months in federal prison for working as an unauthorized PRC agent and conspiring to bribe a public official.
The FBI investigated the case, and the prosecution was overseen by Assistant United States Attorney Amanda B. Elbogen and Trial Attorney Garrett Coyle from the Department of Justice’s National Security Division.
