Over a period of roughly 14 years, according to the feds, Linda Sun rose through the ranks to become deputy chief of staff to Governor Hochul, before she was fired for unspecified reasons and became a target of federal investigators. But according to the DoJ, the 41-year-old was secretly using her position to advance Chinese political and business interests and steal relevant documents. In return, the feds say, Beijing’s spy service showered the couple with millions of dollars that afforded them lavish homes, a Ferrari Roma sports car, and—people had fun with this—special salted duck dishes prepared by a Chinese Embassy chef. In court on Tuesday the couple entered not guilty pleas to charges of acting as unregistered foreign agents.

One person who is absolutely not surprised by all this is Nicholas Eftimiades who became a leading expert on Chinese espionage over his 34-year government career, which included work for the CIA, the State Department’s Bureau of Diplomatic Security, and as a Senior Intelligence Officer in the Defense Intelligence Agency. Today he teaches at Penn State and is a Senior Fellow at the Atlantic Council's Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security. He is also the author of “Chinese Intelligence Operations,” which will soon be reissued with an update. 

China’s MSS spy agency, of course, couldn’t care less about which party, or level of US government, it infiltrates. Its goal is to weaken the United States by any means necessary.

Nick Eftimiades
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