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Chino Hills, California, resident Yaoning “Mike” Sun, 64, was arrested on Thursday and charged with acting as an illegal agent of Beijing while influencing local elections.

“The conduct alleged in this complaint is deeply concerning – the defendant is charged with acting on behalf of the People’s Republic of China to influence our political system. We cannot permit hostile foreign powers to meddle in the governance of our country,” said U.S. Attorney for the Central District of California Martin Estrada.

The criminal complaint against Sun, filed on Tuesday and unsealed on Thursday, said he was working as an “illegal agent for the People’s Republic of China (PRC) while serving as the campaign manager for a political candidate who was elected in 2022 to the city council of a California city.”

Sun allegedly conspired with another defendant named Chen Jun to get the unnamed candidate elected. Chen was Sun’s contact with the PRC government, which was interested in developing more “influence” over American politicians, “particularly on the issue of Taiwan.”

Sun’s candidate won their election in November 2022, after which Chen tasked Sun with writing a report on the election for review by Chinese Communist officials. The PRC was reportedly grateful for Sun’s illuminating efforts.

Chen and Sun kept their influence operation running after the election, building a “U.S.-China Friendship Promotional Association” and writing more political analysis for Chinese Communist Party leaders. In February 2023, Sun asked the PRC government to provide $80,000 in funding to combat “anti-China forces” in Washington.

Sun and Chen traveled to China to meet with PRC leaders in August 2023, the last of their dubious activities chronicled in the Department of Justice (DOJ) charging document.

Chen, now 71 years of age, pled guilty in July to attempting to bribe undercover federal agents as part of a scheme targeting practitioners of Falun Gong, a spiritual discipline loathed by the Chinese Communist Party and banned in the PRC. Chen and another defendant named Lin Feng were attempting to bribe IRS agents to strip the tax-exempt status from a Falun Gong group, an exercise in China’s campaign of transnational repression.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry claimed on Friday it was completely unfamiliar with Sun and Chen, insisting that the PRC “never interferes in the internal affairs of other countries.”

“The international community sees clearly who is actually wantonly interfering in the internal affairs of other countries,” sneered Foreign Ministry spokesman Lin Jian.

The Associated Press (AP) on Friday hypothesized that the candidate referred to by DOJ was Arcadia city councilwoman Eileen Wang, whose campaign listed Yaoning Sun as its treasurer in documents filed in February 2022. A different person was named as treasurer in documents filed later in 2022. Wang did not respond to the AP’s request for comment on Sun’s arrest.

“In the affidavit, it’s alleged that Yaoning Sun, a resident of Chino Hills outside Los Angeles, also ran a media outlet called the U.S. News Center with the councilperson and paid for some of the politician’s travel expenses,” the AP noted.