IE Man Who Acted As Illegal Agent Of China Sentenced To 4-Year Prison Term

SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA — A former campaign advisor and ex-fiancée of a Southern California city council member was sentenced Monday to four years in federal prison for acting as an illegal agent of the People’s Republic of China.

Yaoning “Mike” Sun, 65, of Chino Hills, was sentenced by United States District Judge R. Gary Klausner. Sun pleaded guilty in October 2025 to one count of acting as an illegal agent of a foreign government.

Prosecutors allege that from at least 2022 to January 2024, Sun knowingly acted within the United States as an agent of the PRC and its officials, without notifying the Attorney General, as required by U.S. law.

According to court documents and reporting from the Los Angeles Times, Sun was the fiancée of Eileen Wang, who was elected in 2022 to the Arcadia City Council. Arcadia is a suburb of the San Gabriel Valley.

In the criminal complaint against Sun, prosecutors referred to Wang as "Individual 1," alleging that Sun and his Chinese government contacts were cultivating her in hopes that she would rise in politics and help them strengthen China’s influence in California.

Sun served as Wang's campaign manager and confidante while she ran for the Arcadia City Council. During the campaign, Sun allegedly communicated with an accomplice regarding his efforts to get Wang elected, according to the criminal complaint against him.

The accomplice discussed with Chinese government officials how the PRC could "influence" local politicians in the United States, particularly on the issue of Taiwan, according to the complaint.

In November 2022, shortly after Wang was elected, the accomplice instructed Sun to prepare a report on the election that was sent to Chinese government officials, who responded positively and expressed thanks, according to the complaint.

The accomplice also sent a message to Wang stating that she was "doing a good job, I hope you can continue the good work, make Chinese people proud," the complaint states.

Wang told the Times that her romantic relationship with Sun ended in 2024, before federal prosecutors charged her ex.

Wang currently serves as mayor of Arcadia.

In February 2023, Sun drafted a report for PRC officials to solicit additional money and taskings from the PRC government. Sun’s report summarized his personal experience, including his past service in the People’s Liberation Army, China’s military.

In the report, Sun stated that he had worked in the United States to lead “delegations of U.S. dignitaries and cultural workers to China,” “persist in resisting any hostile forces that undermine the friendship of U.S.-China relations, and Chinese secessionist forces,” and, “most of all, during the 2022 U.S. midterm elections, I orchestrated and organized my team to win the election for city council” for [Wang], whom Sun called a “new political star,” Sun’s plea agreement states.

Sun’s report described various issues concerning “anti-China forces” overseas, including opposition to independence for Taiwan, Tibet, and Xinjiang as well as issues involving Falun Gong, a spiritual movement banned in China. The report further proposed “using part of our Los Angeles organization’s professional core team,” to seek to counteract those forces, according to court documents. To that end, Sun’s report requested $80,000 from the PRC government to fund a pro-PRC demonstration at a Fourth of July parade in Washington, D.C.

Throughout 2023 and 2024, Sun communicated with an official at the consulate general of the People’s Republic of China in Los Angeles regarding activities in Southern California related to Taiwan.

In April 2023, President Tsai Ing-Wen of Taiwan visited Southern California. Sun sent real-time updates on President Tsai’s movements to a Los Angeles-based PRC consular official and sought approval from this official to publish an article about President Tsai’s visit on the website he operated with Wang. Sun also took photographs of individuals protesting in support of and opposition to President Tsai and sent those photographs to the consular official.

“As an agent for the PRC, [Sun] worked covertly in the United States with his primary co-conspirator John Chen, a/k/a ‘Chen Jun,’” prosecutors argued in a sentencing memorandum. “Chen was a high-level member of the PRC intelligence apparatus, who regularly attended elite [Chinese Communist Party] functions, including military parades…[and] met personally with PRC President Xi Jinping… Per his own report, and other communications between Chen and PRC officials, [Sun] served as Chen’s right-hand man in the United States for decades.”

Sun's primary accomplice was John Chen, aka "Chen Jun." He was sentenced in November 2024 to 20 months in federal prison after pleading guilty in the Southern District of New York to acting as an illegal agent of the PRC and conspiracy to bribe a public official.