China’s envoy in New York expelled, reports CNN

NEW YORK: China’s consul general in New York has been expelled, CNN reported on Wednesday, a day after a former aide to New York Governor Kathy Hochul was charged with secretly acting as an agent of the Chinese government.

CNN reported Hochul as saying during an event on Tuesday that she “conveyed (her) desire to have the consul general expelled, and I have been informed that the consul general is no longer in the NY mission.”

The US State Department and China’s embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Linda Sun, 41, a former aide to Hochul, was charged on Tuesday with secretly acting as an agent of the Chinese government in exchange for millions of dollars in compensation and gifts, including meals of gourmet duck.

Sun and her husband, Chris Hu, 40, pleaded not guilty to criminal charges before US Magistrate Judge Peggy Kuo in Brooklyn, after being arrested on Tuesday morning.

Federal prosecutors in Brooklyn said that while working in state government, Sun blocked representatives of the Taiwanese government from meeting with officials, and sought to arrange for a high-level New York state official to visit China. In exchange.