http://nypost.com/2024/09/03/opinion/with-kathy-hochuls-china-friendly-view-its-no-wonder-a-ccp-spy-worked-for-her/
By The Post Editorial Board
The New York Post
September 3, 2024
China has made a complete fool out of Gov. Kathy Hochul (and former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, too), per a new indictment of one of their top aides on espionage charges by US Attorney Breon Peace.
Shouldn’t Hochul be screaming at the top of her lungs — and demanding strong federal action against Beijing?
Heck, the Harris-Biden administration shouldn’t even need prodding: China placed an agent in the Executive Chamber of New York state government. Doesn’t that merit the expulsion of key Chinese officials, at the least?
Linda Sun and her husband, Christopher Hu, leaving Brooklyn federal court after being arraigned on Sept. 3, 2024. | Paul Martinka
Where else are China’s spies operating?
Linda Sun, a former top aide to Hochul who’d also worked for Cuomo, faces federal charges, along with husband Chris Hu, of violating the Foreign Agents Registration Act, visa fraud, alien smuggling and money-laundering conspiracy.
“While appearing to serve the people of New York as deputy chief of staff within the New York State executive chamber, the defendant and her husband actually worked to further the interests of the Chinese government,” charged Peace. “The illicit scheme enriched the defendant’s family to the tune of millions of dollars.”
Sun acted “at the request” of Chinese officials and the Chinese Communist Party in “numerous political activities” — blocking Taiwanese representatives from meeting with top state officials, changing state messages to please Beijing, obtaining proclamations for Chinese representatives without authorization and arranging meetings for Chinese delegations.
In return, Sun and Hu got millions from Beijing, using the funds to buy homes now valued at a whopping $6.2 million, cars (including a 2024 Ferrari) and other items.
Linda Sun, a New York gubernatorial aide, holding an allegedly fake certificate at a PRC Consulate event falsely claiming to be the deputy commissioner of the Department of Labor in 2023. | US Eastern District Court
Clearly, China sees officials like Kamala Harris, Joe Biden and Hochul as pushovers: Remember when Beijing sent a spy balloon across America — with nary a peep from Biden-Harris?
Alas, don’t expect them to do anything different this time.
Hochul, incidentally, ignored warnings about CCP influence operations.
Despite media reports about the Sino-American Friendship Association’s ties to the CCP, for instance, senior Hochul aide Elaine Fan last year attended “An Evening of Chinese Culture” sponsored by the group and the Mets, National Review’s Jimmy Quinn reported.
The feds had warned local officials that China seeks relationships with them to promote its agenda, noting that locals “risk being manipulated” by CCP “influence operations” and calling them “deceptive and coercive.”
And China’s agenda is indisputably evil: Beijing has persecuted and murdered Uyghurs, threatened its Pacific neighbors, repressed its own people and even targeted foes on US soil.
Yet Hochul has bragged of the “beautiful relationship between our countries,” calling them “amazing partners” with whom “we continue to work together collaboratively.”
Chinese Consul-General Huang Ping — a CCP hardliner who the feds say oversees organized harassment of critics here and who appears to be PRC Official-1 in the indictment — even praised Hochul as an “old friend,” per Quinn.
No wonder one of her top aides allegedly got away with spying for China.
Nor is there much doubt Biden and Harris will remain mute about it, emboldening the Chinese Communists to grow even more aggressive.
Blame their naiveté — or that trademark Biden-Harris fear of escalation; either way, the prospects for America are terrifying.
The essential American soul is hard, isolate, stoic, and a killer. It has never yet melted. ~ D.H. Lawrence
| 