Just days after Linda Sun, a former top aide to New York Governors Kathy Hochul and Andrew Cuomo, was charged with being an unregistered agent for the Chinese Community Party (CCP) in exchange for millions of dollars in kickbacks, another Chinese-linked scandal is erupting in the Empire State.
According to a Daily Caller News Foundation, a man arrested for obstruction of justice and acting as an unregistered foreign agent in New York City has been photographed attending events with New York Democratic Rep. Grace Meng as far back as 2014.
Per the investigative report, Lu Jianwang was charged in April 2023 with conspiring to act as an agent of China and other crimes related to operating an illegal police station out of a New York City-based nonprofit called the America Changle Association.
However, well before the charges, Lu Jianwang had a long history of close ties with Meng at events in Washington, D.C. and New York City.
The report said it reviewed dozens of reports and photos from Chinese-language news outlets and community organizations to uncover Lu Jianwang’s interactions with Democrat lawmakers, including Meng.
These ranged from attending Meng’s fundraisers and rallies to cutting checks to the congresswoman’s campaign committee.
The Daily Caller News Foundation also previously reported that Lu Jianwang socialized with New York Democratic Sen. Chuck Schumer and Mayor Eric Adams at anniversary celebrations for America Changle and related Chinese nonprofits.
According to security experts, the frequency and duration of these meetings should sound some serious alarms.
“The extent of infiltration by the Chinese Communist Party into New York’s Chinese community and, by extension, to its governmental representatives is both alarming and largely unaddressed by U.S. national security agencies,” Dr. Lawrence Sellin, a national security and Chinese influence operation expert, told the Daily Caller.
The aforementioned Linda Sun also worked closely with Meng. Sun was arrested Tuesday for allegedly “acting as an undisclosed agent of the People’s Republic of China and the Chinese Communist Party.”
Sun served as Meng’s chief of staff while she was in the New York state assembly and served on Meng’s 2012 congressional campaign, in addition to her time serving under the Governor’s of New York.
According to the report, in April 2023, the FBI arrested Lu Jianwang and another defendant for deleting evidence regarding an investigation of “an undeclared police station in downtown New York City” out of America Changle’s Manhattan office. The secret police station was an outpost of the Fuzhou municipal police force from China’s Fujian province, according to the Department of Justice’s complaint.
At the time, the DOJ alleged that Lu Jianwang helped “locate persons of interest” for Chinese state security officials and participated in “counterprotests in Washington, D.C. against members of a religion” banned under Chinese law.
U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York Breon Peace said in a statement “the defendants were directed to do [China’s] bidding, including helping locate a Chinese dissident living in the United States, and obstructed our investigation by deleting their communications with a Chinese Ministry of Public Security official.”
Lu Jianwang was released on $250,000 bail the same day of his arrest, court records show. If convicted, Lu Jianwang faces five years in prison for conspiring to act as a Chinese agent and 20 years in prison for obstruction of justice, according to the DOJ.
Weng’s office did not comment on the Daily Caller report.