A 65-year-old San Bernardino County man was sentenced to four years in prison for his role as a covert agent for the People’s Republic of China, federal officials announced Monday.
Officials with the United States Attorney’s Los Angeles Office said that between 2022 and January 2024, Yaoning “Mike” Sun, a Chino Hills resident and campaign advisor to an elected city council member in a Southern California city knowingly worked on behalf of Chinese intelligence without notifying the U.S. Attorney General as required by law.
“At the direction and control of PRC government officials, Sun coordinated with U.S.-based individuals to promote the PRC’s interests by, among other things, ‘orchestrat[ing]’ a team to help elect a politician identified in court documents as ‘Individual 1′ to political office and promoting pro-PRC propaganda in the United States,” a news release from the Department of Justice stated.
Prosecutors said that after working to get individual 1 elected in 2022, the duo attended a Dec. 2022 meeting in Southern California where Chinese government officials were told the pair were a “team dedicated” to the Chinese Communist Party.
Sun and individual 1 operated a “purported” news website for the local Chinese American community and took instructions from foreign officials to publish pro Chinese government content.
Investigators obtained a draft of a Feb. 2023 report for Chinese government officials written by Sun, who was soliciting additional money and tasks from his contacts, where he outlined his past service in China’s military, the People’s Liberation Army, among other accomplishments on behalf of the Chinese government.
Highlighting his work while in Southern California, he wrote, “Most of all, during the 2022 midterm elections, I orchestrated and organized my team to win the election for city council” for individual 1, who he referred to as a “new political star,” federal officials noted.
Included in Sun’s report was a request for $80,000 to organize a pro-People’s Republic China demonstration at a Fourth of July Parade in Washington D.C.
Investigators did not provide any information on the identity of individual 1, nor did they say what city he served as a member of the city council. It is unclear if individual 1 is facing any charges.
A Chino Hills man, 65, who reported to an official at the Chinese Consulate General in L.A., was sentenced to four years in prison for working as an illegal covert agent for the Chinese government on Feb. 9, 2026. (Google Maps)
In April 2023, former president of Taiwan Tsai Ing-Wen visited Southern California.
During her visit, federal investigators said that Sun provided real-time updates on her movements to an official in the Chinese Consulate in Los Angeles. He also asked for approval to publish an article about Ing-Wen on the website he operated, while also sending photographs of people demonstrating against or showing their support for the Taiwanese president to the consulate official.
Former Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen, center, waves to medias in Taipei, Taiwan, Saturday, July 26, 2025. (AP Photo/Chiang Ying-ying)
Prosecutors said that Sun’s primary co-conspirator between 2023 and 2024 “was a high-level member of the PRC intelligence apparatus” named John Chen, also known as Chen Jun.
Los Angeles man, 63, charged in 1996 cold case murder of Temple City woman
“Sun served as Chen’s right-hand man in the United States for decades,” prosecutors argued in a sentencing memorandum.
Chen was sentenced in Nov. 2024 to a year and a half in federal prison after pleading guilty to being an illegal agent of the Chinese government and attempting to bribe a public official.
Nearly one year later, in Oct. 2025, Sun pleaded guilty to one count of acting as an illegal agent of a foreign government.
“Federal law enforcement will not allow hostile foreign nations to infiltrate the governance of our nation’s political bodies,” First Assistant United States Attorney Bill Essayli said. “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.”
Copyright 2026 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KTLA.