A Chinese spy cozied up to a California city councilwoman — and helped to get the new “political star” elected in 2022 — to advance Beijing’s interests, the feds said.
Yaoning “Mike” Sun, 65, will spend four years in prison after getting Eileen Wang to fall for him while serving as her campaign adviser and treasurer during her campaign for Arcadia City Council.
At the direction of People’s Republic of China officials, he helped “orchestrate” the Wang’s 2022 election victory and subsequently submitted detailed reports to Chinese intelligence detailing how they had successfully “cultivated” a new “political star” friendly to the Chinese government, according to court documents.
The pair went on to become engaged,the Los Angeles Times reported.Some of the donations Sun helped steer to Wang’s campaign came from those with ties to the Chinese government.
Sun pleaded guilty in October 2025 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 Essaylisaid in a statementannouncing Sun’s sentence on Monday.
“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.”
Court records also show that during the April 2023 visit of then-Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen to Southern California, Sun closely monitored her movements and reported directly to PRC consular officials.
Source: California Post – Breaking California News, Photos & Videos
