(Minghui.org) Yaoning “Mike” Sun, a Chinese who lives in southern California pleaded guilty to a federal court in Los Angeles, California, on October 27, 2025, for acting as an agent for communist China.

Yaoning “Mike” Sun (left) pleaded guilty on October 27 for acting as a CCP agent. His accomplice John Chen (right) previously received a 20-month detention term in New York.

Sun was arrested on December 19, 2024. Court documents showed that, while he worked for a Southern California politician who was running for the city council in 2022, Sun worked as a foreign agent for China. He admitted he did not follow procedure to notify the U.S. Department of Justice about this.

The federal prosecutor said Sun coordinated with John Chen, another agent for the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Chen plotted to target Falun Gong practitioners in the U.S. and was sentenced to a federal prison last year with a 20-month term. Falun Gong is a meditation system suppressed by the CCP. Chen followed the CCP’s orders and acted against Falun Gong practitioners in the U.S.

Chen and Sun met on January 15, 2023, to discuss the persecution of Falun Gong that started over 20 years ago. Before a politician who ran for a city council went to China to meet CCP officials, Chen asked Sun to provide information about the Falun Gong practitioners who lived in a California city.

According to the court document, Sun worked as a campaign manager and a strategist for a Southern Californian politician. When the politician ran for election in 2022, Sun and Chen discussed the efforts associated with this.

Chen also discussed with CCP officials how to influence local government officials in the U.S., including swaying their opinions on issues related to Taiwan. According to court documents, after the politician was elected in November 2022, Chen instructed Sun to prepare a report on their efforts in the election. After the report was sent to CCP officials, these officials responded positively and thanked them for their efforts.

About one month after the politician was elected, Chen arranged a lunch for Sun and others at a Rowland Heights restaurant. Chen told a CCP official this was a “Core member lunch.” Afterwards Chen said this lunch was “successful” since participants agreed to establish a “U.S.-China Friendship Promotional Association.”

When charges were brought against Sun, Akil Davis, assistant director in charge of the FBI’s Los Angeles bureau, wrote in his statement, “This case highlights the breadth of the PRC’s relentless intelligence and malign influence activities targeting the United States.”