Beijing’s covert campaign behind a SoCal mayoral bid revealed
Two convicted Chinese agents helped Arcadia’s former mayor win a City Council seat and secretly reported to Beijing. Yaoning “Mike” Sun ran the campaign and worked with John Chen, who acted as a PRC spymaster; Wang regularly communicated with Chinese officials and aimed to counter Taiwan independence. Chen received 20 months in prison for acting as an unregistered PRC agent and bribing an IRS agent, while Sun was sentenced to 40 months after pleading guilty. Wang pleaded guilty to acting as an illegal agent for a foreign government and resigned as mayor, facing up to 10 years in federal prison.
