News/Commentary

Hochul’s ex-aide charged as China spy rewarded with Hawaii vacation home, travel tix, exotic meals, luxuries

September 4, 2024 | | Print Article

A former aide to leftist New York Gov. Kathy Hochul has been charged with acting as an agent for the Chinese government.

Linda Sun, who also previously worked for former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, was charged this Tuesday with “violating and conspiring to violate the Foreign Agents Registration Act, visa fraud, alien smuggling, and money laundering conspiracy.”

Her husband and co-defendant, Chris Hu, was also charged.

The two previously made headlines when their home was raided by the FBI in July.

“The basis for the search at the $3.5 million home of Linda Sun, the former deputy chief of staff, and the crimes under investigation remain unclear,” The New York Times reported at the time.

“Neither Ms. Sun, 40, nor her husband, Chris Hu, 41, have been accused of wrongdoing. Neither could be reached for comment and they did not respond to voice mail and text messages,” the report continued.

It’s now known that Sun’s work for the Chinese started in the summer of 2021, when the Chinese consulate official’s private chef prepared and then delivered six Nanjing-style salted ducks to her parents.

“About four months later, another six ducks arrived at their home. Another four months later, there were more salted ducks. Eight months after that: still more salted ducks,” the Times notes.

It turns out that the ducks “were just a small part of a yearslong series of payoffs to” Sun in exchange for “actions that benefited the People’s Republic of China and its Communist Party.”

“The 65-page indictment also described travel benefits, event tickets, and the promotion of a close friend’s freight business with a headquarters in Queens,” according to the Times.

Some of the “actions” that Sun took to benefit China include keeping Taiwanese officials away from the governor, removing references to Taiwan in state communications, quashing meetings between Taiwanese officials and state leaders, and keeping the plight of the Uyghurs out of state officials’ mouths.

During the pandemic, Sun likewise sought to make China look good by, as an example, having the governor give them a shout-out for masks and ventilators that they donated to the state.

“In April 2020, a PRC official informed Sun that several Chinese foundations would donate 1,000 ventilators to the Greater New York Hospital Association,” CNN notes. “In return, Sun told the official that Cuomo would call him to thank him for the donation.”

“After waiting two hours for the call, the official complained that he had not yet heard from Cuomo. In turn, Sun apologized and indicated that Cuomo would thank him in public and on social media for facilitating the donation which was scheduled to arrive in New York the next day,” according to CNN.

Defense attorneys for Sun and Hu have said they “have a lot of confidence in our case.”

“A lot of the allegations in this indictment are frankly perplexing, overly inflammatory,” they said. “As you heard in court today, we are looking forward to our day in court. The defendants are exercising their right to a speedy trial as soon as they can; we have a lot of confidence in Chris and in Linda.”

Speaking with CNN, one of them added that the charges against their clients “are inflammatory and appear to be the product of an overly aggressive prosecution.”

The evidence suggests otherwise:

According to reports, besides being a CCP spy, Sun was also a leftist zealot who at one time promoted so-called “equity.”

Watch:

Vivek Saxena
Latest posts by Vivek Saxena (see all)

Comment

We have no tolerance for comments containing violence, racism, profanity, vulgarity, doxing, or discourteous behavior. If a comment is spam, instead of replying to it please click the ∨ icon below and to the right of that comment. Thank you for partnering with us to maintain fruitful conversation.

Latest Articles