NY’s Chinese consul general ousted after aide charged with acting as Beijing agent: Hochul
A top Chinese consular official who featured prominently in shocking spy accusations against former Empire State governor’s aide Linda Sun will no longer be with the New York diplomatic mission, Gov. Kathy Hochul said Wednesday.
The departure of Consul General Huang Ping under murky circumstances came as sources told The Post that suspicions about Sun arose after she bestowed a state honor on the diplomat – an action she did without authority while brazenly posing with him for an incriminating photograph.
Sources said an ensuing probe’s findings – unveiled Tuesday in a sprawling federal indictment – about the scope of Sun’s dealings as an alleged Chinese agent shocked officials who worked with her in both Hochul’s and former Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s administrations.
“I conveyed my desire to have the Consul General from the People’s Republic of China and the New York Mission expelled, and I’ve been informed that the Consul General is no longer in the New York mission,” Hochul told reporters, referring to conversations she had with Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell about Huang.
“I also requested the State Department to take appropriate action in response to the dangerous and outrageous actions taken by the People’s Republic of China,” she said.
Huang was spotted by The Post scurrying from the consulate building in Manhattan Wednesday morning – just hours before Hochul told reporters that she reached out to the Biden administration to ask for his expulsion.
Hochul left the impression that her request had been granted, but US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller afterward contended that Huang’s departure had already been in the works for reasons less dramatic than accusations of spycraft on American soil.
“The Consul General was not expelled,” he said during a briefing. “Our understanding is that the Consul General reached the end of a regularly scheduled rotation in August, and so rotated out of the position.
“There was no expulsion action,” he said again, before referring other questions about Huang’s status to the Chinese government.
The consulate, when reached by The Post, implied Huang remained at work.
“Consul General Huang Ping is performing his duties as usual,” a statement from the consulate reads. “We hope the media will refrain from sensationalizing false information.”
Hochul’s call for Huang’s expulsion echoed the stance by The Post’s editorial board, who argued the governor should demand strong federal action against China for allegedly placing an agent in the Executive Chamber of New York’s government.
The looming purported departure came just a day after federal prosecutors leveled a bombshell 64-page indictment against Sun, 41, and her husband, Christopher Hu, 40, accusing her of acting as a foreign agent for China.
Sun reaped millions in kickbacks from the People’s Republic of China and Chinese Communist Party for her work turning the New York governor’s office, under both Hochul and former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, effectively into a mouthpiece for China, especially on Taiwan, prosecutors said.
Huang appeared to be “PRC Official-1,” a high-ranking consulate official referred to 42 times in the Brooklyn federal court indictment who lavished praise on Sun’s alleged pro-China actions and even gifted her family Nanjing-style salted ducks prepared by his personal chef.
The gifts went both ways, according to the indictment, which contends Sun in January 2023 obtained a framed gubernatorial proclamation celebrating the Lunar New Year for Huang “outside the normal channels.”
Sun, who at that point worked for the state Department of Labor, even attended an event in which Huang called her to the stage to speak.
The pair posed onstage for a photograph, apparently holding the proclamation, which later appeared on the consulate’s website and was included in the indictment, according to court papers.
The fake proclamation led state officials to contact the New York Inspector General’s Office, who started an investigation shortly before Sun’s termination in March 2023, sources said.
Inspector General’s officials declined to comment on the probe, which Hochul implied had led to a Department of Justice investigation.
“The moment we discovered the misconduct, we fired this individual,” Hochul said.
The federal probe uncovered depths of wrongdoing that surprised Hochul and other officials, especially given Sun’s longstanding service in the highest echelons of New York’s government, sources said.
Cuomo’s administration first hired Sun in 2012. She worked in several government roles before Hochul, who took over as governor following Cuomo’s resignation, hired her as a deputy chief of staff in 2021.
A former Cuomo official who worked with Sun said it was clear that Sun was politically connected.
“Linda was very chatty, very engaging, and charismatic. It’s shocking that I was close to someone who was an agent of a foreign government,” the source said.
“She was a player. She was clearly important to the office.”
Sun would be on email chains with top Cuomo aides, particularly on events involving the Asian community and immigration issues, and would help “crowd build” at events — making sure that enough people were invited and showed up at Cuomo shindigs, the source said.
“She could get ten people to show up at an event in a heartbeat,” the source said.
Sun would also review “talking points” or language for cultural sensitivity, speeches for Cuomo and Hochul — then the lieutenant governor — especially regarding the Asian community, the source said.
The indictment contends that Sun forged the signature of “Politician-2” – an official who appears to be Hochul – during 2018 in order to secure an official invitation to the US for a delegation from China’s Henan Province.
Hochul said she wasn’t asked to sit for an interview with the feds, but they did ask her to verify her signature.
She called Sun a mid-level aide with whom she had limited contact “other than sitting outside a parade.”
Hochul tried to deflect the blame from the Sun scandal with a time-honored political tack: blame Cuomo.
“She has been in government for many, many years prior to the time I became governor where she was involved in making a lot of decisions with related to the administration at the time and the Chinese government — promoting Chinese viewpoints and giving them proclamations and visas and actually at the same time really diminishing any involvement with the country of Taiwan,” she said.
The Post couldn’t reach Sun or Hu at their $4 million Long Island mansion. Employees at Hu’s liquor store in Queens declined to comment on their boss.
A man who answered the door at Sun’s parents’ home also declined to comment.
– Additional reporting by Haley Brown, Reuven Fenton and Georgett Roberts
