{"id":171610,"date":"2026-02-10T08:15:10","date_gmt":"2026-02-10T08:15:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/171610\/"},"modified":"2026-02-10T08:15:10","modified_gmt":"2026-02-10T08:15:10","slug":"chino-hills-man-65-worked-as-chinese-covert-agent-in-southern-california","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/171610\/","title":{"rendered":"Chino Hills man, 65, worked as Chinese \u2018covert agent\u2019 in Southern California"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\u2019s\u00a0Republic of China, federal officials announced Monday.<\/p>\n

Officials with the United States Attorney\u2019s Los Angeles Office said that between 2022 and January 2024,\u00a0Yaoning\u00a0\u201cMike\u201d Sun, a Chino Hills\u00a0resident\u00a0and campaign advisor to an elected city council member in a Southern California city\u00a0knowingly worked on behalf of Chinese intelligence without notifying the U.S. Attorney General as required by law.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the direction and control of PRC government officials, Sun coordinated with U.S.-based individuals to promote the PRC\u2019s interests by, among other things, \u2018orchestrat[ing]\u2019 a team to help elect a politician identified in court documents as \u2018Individual 1\u2032 to political office and promoting pro-PRC propaganda in the United States,\u201d a\u00a0news release<\/a>\u00a0from the Department of Justice stated.<\/p>\n

Prosecutors said that after working to get individual 1 elected in 2022, the duo attended a Dec. 2022 meeting in Southern California\u00a0where\u00a0Chinese government officials\u00a0were told the pair were a \u201cteam dedicated\u201d to the Chinese Communist Party.<\/p>\n

Sun and individual 1\u00a0operated\u00a0a \u201cpurported\u201d news website for the local Chinese American community and took instructions from\u00a0foreign officials to publish pro Chinese government content.<\/p>\n

Investigators obtained a draft of a Feb. 2023 report for Chinese government officials written by Sun, who was\u00a0soliciting\u00a0additional\u00a0money and tasks from his contacts, where he outlined\u00a0his past service in China\u2019s military, the People\u2019s Liberation Army, among other accomplishments on behalf of the Chinese government.<\/p>\n

Highlighting his work while in Southern California, he wrote, \u201cMost of all, during the 2022 midterm elections, I orchestrated and organized my team to win the election for city council\u201d for individual 1, who he referred to as a\u00a0\u201cnew political star,\u201d federal officials noted.<\/p>\n

Included in Sun\u2019s report was a request for $80,000 to organize a pro-People\u2019s\u00a0Republic\u00a0China demonstration at a Fourth of July Parade in Washington D.C.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\"Chinese<\/a><\/p>\n

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)<\/p>\n

In April 2023, former president of Taiwan Tsai Ing-Wen visited Southern California.<\/p>\n

During her visit, federal investigators said that Sun provided real-time updates on her movements to an official in the\u00a0Chinese Consulate in Los Angeles. He also asked for approval to publish an article about Ing-Wen on the website he\u00a0operated, while also sending photographs of people\u00a0demonstrating\u00a0against or showing their support for the Taiwanese president to the consulate official.<\/p>\n

\"Former<\/a><\/p>\n

Former Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen, center, waves to medias in Taipei, Taiwan, Saturday, July 26, 2025. (AP Photo\/Chiang Ying-ying)<\/p>\n

Prosecutors said that Sun\u2019s primary co-conspirator\u00a0between 2023 and 2024\u00a0\u201cwas a high-level member of the PRC intelligence apparatus\u201d named John Chen, also known as Chen Jun.<\/p>\n

Los Angeles man, 63, charged in 1996 cold case murder of Temple City woman <\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cSun served as Chen\u2019s right-hand man in the United States for decades,\u201d prosecutors argued in a sentencing memorandum.<\/p>\n

Chen was sentenced\u00a0in Nov. 2024<\/a>\u00a0to\u00a0a year and a half\u00a0in federal prison after pleading guilty to being an illegal agent of the Chinese government and\u00a0attempting\u00a0to bribe a public official.<\/p>\n

Nearly one\u00a0year later, in Oct. 2025, Sun pleaded guilty to one count of acting as an illegal agent of a foreign\u00a0government.<\/p>\n

\u201cFederal law enforcement will not allow hostile foreign nations to infiltrate the governance of our nation\u2019s political bodies,\u201d First Assistant United States Attorney Bill\u00a0Essayli\u00a0said. \u201cThe 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.<\/p>\n

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KTLA. <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A 65-year-old San Bernardino County man was sentenced to four years in prison for his role as a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":171611,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[7,9,8,82197,82196,82195,3716,82194,1009,14791,435],"class_list":{"0":"post-171610","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-california","8":"tag-california","9":"tag-california-headlines","10":"tag-california-news","11":"tag-chinese-intelligence","12":"tag-covert-agent","13":"tag-federal-officials","14":"tag-los-angeles-office","15":"tag-prc-government","16":"tag-southern-california","17":"tag-sun","18":"tag-united-states"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/171610","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=171610"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/171610\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/171611"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=171610"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=171610"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=171610"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}