{"id":61278,"date":"2025-12-04T23:19:11","date_gmt":"2025-12-04T23:19:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/61278\/"},"modified":"2025-12-04T23:19:11","modified_gmt":"2025-12-04T23:19:11","slug":"accused-chinese-agent-linda-sun-boasted-gov-hochul-much-more-obedient-than-andrew-cuomo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/61278\/","title":{"rendered":"Accused Chinese agent Linda Sun boasted Gov. Hochul ‘much more obedient’ than Andrew Cuomo"},"content":{"rendered":"

The former top state official\u00a0who allegedly served as a Chinese agent<\/a>\u00a0once bragged that Kathy Hochul was \u201cmuch more obedient\u201d than then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo.<\/p>\n

Linda Sun, 42,\u00a0had convinced Hochul<\/a>\u00a0\u2014 who served as Cuomo\u2019s lieutenant governor at the time \u2014 to film a Lunar New Year video touting China\u2019s New York consulate when she made the shocking comment, according to evidence presented at the ex-Albany aide\u2019s corruption trial.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe is much more obedient than the governor,\u201d the accused Beijing mole wrote to China consular official Lihua Li in a Jan. 25, 2021, message shown to jurors in Brooklyn federal court.<\/p>\n

Linda Sun, who allegedly served as a Chinese agent, once bragged that Kathy Hochul was \u201cmuch more obedient\u201d than Andrew Cuomo. Paul Martinka<\/p>\n

\u201cThe deputy governor listens to me more than the governor does,\u201d Sun wrote in another text minutes later \u2014 punctuated with a sheepish grin emoji \u2014 sent to Huang Ping, who headed the consulate office at the time.<\/p>\n

The messages,\u00a0made public\u00a0Thursday after\u00a0being\u00a0presented to\u00a0the jury earlier this week, show Sun taking credit for convincing Hochul to film the video for the Chinese Consulate in which she wished viewers \u201cxin nian kuai le,\u201d or happy New Year.<\/p>\n

The Chinese officials had asked for Cuomo to film the video, but Sun told them that she could likely get Hochul to participate instead, the messages show.<\/p>\n

\u201cLet me ask, but likely the LG can probably do it,\u201d Sun replied to Li, referring to Hochul, in one of the messages shown in court.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat would be great as well. Thanks,\u201d Li responded.<\/p>\n

Sun took credit for convincing Hochul to film the video for the Chinese Consulate in which she wished viewers \u201cxin nian kuai le,\u201d or happy New Year. ZUMAPRESS.com<\/p>\n

Sun then volunteered to coach Hochul on mentioning \u201ctalking points\u201d of the Chinese official\u2019s choosing, the texts show.<\/p>\n

\u201cCan you share with me some talking points of things you want her to mention? I can make sure to include it in her remarks,\u201d Sun wrote.<\/p>\n

In the two-minute video \u2014\u00a0which is still on the New York Chinese Consul\u2019s YouTube page\u00a0\u2014 Hochul shouts out Ping by name,\u00a0calling it a \u201cprivilege\u201d to have worked with him on issues impacting Chinese New Yorkers.<\/p>\n

Prosecutors said\u00a0Ping\u00a0had\u00a0his private chef supply Sun\u2019s family with luxurious salted ducks\u00a0from their hometown of Nanjing\u00a0during the same time\u00a0span\u00a0when the state official \u2014 who served under both Cuomo and now-Gov. Hochul \u2014 is accused of acting as an illegal unregistered foreign agent for China.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want to eat salted duck,\u201d Sun texted Ping during a chummy\u00a0July 28, 2021\u00a0exchange, in which she\u00a0also joked that she should get a \u201cChina-US Friendship Award,\u201d court records show.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy master is from Nanjing and has great skills. I\u2019ll ask them to make them now,\u201d Ping replied.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have a lot of family here, maybe a few more, all from Nanjing,\u201d Sun continued, noting that her relatives would be \u201cvery happy\u201d to receive the poultry delicacy.<\/p>\n

The consul general then agreed to send Sun six ducks, and texted her two days later asking whether she had tried them yet.<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, I eat it as a midnight snack,\u201d Sun responded. <\/p>\n

\u201cThank you Ambassador Huang. The duck is especially delicious,\u201d she added \u2014 ending the text with a licking-lips emoji to convey her pleasure.<\/p>\n

Sun is also accused of\u00a0doing a slew of\u00a0other\u00a0favors\u00a0for Chinese officials in exchange for millions of dollars in business funneled to her husband Chris Hu\u2019s seafood export company, and goodies like the duck and free concert tickets.<\/p>\n

Sun served under both Cuomo and now-Gov. Hochul Getty Images<\/p>\n

She also claimed to be able to stop Cuomo from mentioning the plight of the Uyghurs\u00a0\u2014\u00a0a predominantly Muslim ethnic group that the Chinese government has committed atrocities against, including mass jailings and forced labor, according to\u00a0human rights advocates.<\/p>\n

In the Jan. 25, 2021 exchange with Ping, Sun wrote that she had an \u201cargument\u201d with Cuomo\u2019s speechwriter, who had \u201cinsisted\u201d on bringing up the Uyghurs.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis person has never been to China, right? He knows very little about China,\u201d Ping shot back.<\/p>\n

\u201cNever been there,\u201d\u00a0Sun replied.\u00a0\u201cI\u2019m going to collapse.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI will think of a solution tomorrow, but I will definitely not let the governor bring it up,\u201d Sun then promised.<\/p>\n

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The spoils of the alleged corruption scheme\u00a0allowed Sun and her husband to ride around in a Ferrari Roma and afford a $4 million Long Island mansion and a $2 million second home in\u00a0Hawaii, prosecutors have said.<\/p>\n

The request for Cuomo to film a Lunar New Year video was part of a broader effort to have public figures tape China-friendly clips as the world recovered from the COVID-19 pandemic.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Then-Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker and Harvard President Lawrence Bacow also recorded similar videos at the time, according to texts displayed in court.<\/p>\n

Sun, who was fired from the state government\u00a0in 2023 after the allegations emerged,\u00a0has pleaded not guilty.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cLinda Sun was hired by the Executive Chamber over a decade ago and was promptly terminated in 2023 after evidence of misconduct was found,\u201d Hochul spokesperson\u00a0Kara Cumoletti\u00a0told The Post in a statement Thursday.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cNo one should put much stock into the words of an individual who has been accused of violating her responsibility to the state and lying repeatedly for her own benefit.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sun\u2019s lawyers have argued that her cozy relationship with the Chinese consulate was merely a normal\u00a0\u2014\u00a0and legal\u00a0\u2014\u00a0part of her job duties.<\/p>\n

\u201cLinda Sun did what she was hired to do. She didn\u2019t commit a crime by doing her job,\u201d her defense attorney, Jarrod Schaeffer, told jurors at the start of trial.<\/p>\n

\u2014\u00a0Additional reporting by Vaughn Golden<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The former top state official\u00a0who allegedly served as a Chinese agent\u00a0once bragged that Kathy Hochul was \u201cmuch more…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":61279,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[80,426,57,9,11,10,4721,58],"class_list":{"0":"post-61278","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-andrew-cuomo","9":"tag-kathy-hochul","10":"tag-metro","11":"tag-new-york","12":"tag-new-york-headlines","13":"tag-new-york-news","14":"tag-trials","15":"tag-us-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61278","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=61278"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61278\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/61279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=61278"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=61278"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=61278"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}