‘Happy to hear from you’: Emails reveal pattern of CCP engagement inside Hochul administration

Democrat New York Gov. Kathy Hochul’s administration continued to engage with Chinese government officials months after firing alleged China mole Linda Sun, records obtained by the Daily Caller News Foundation show.

Email records obtained by the DCNF show that Hochul’s office discussed welcoming a government delegation from Henan Province — a region that featured prominently during Sun’s criminal trial — just months after firing the former aide accused of acting as an undisclosed agent of the People’s Republic of China (PRC). In one message, an aide to Hochul wrote that the governor was “happy to hear from” a Henan official seeking engagement.

The records, along with other revelations, suggest a noticeable pattern of engagement with Beijing by the Hochul administration, even as federal authorities warned that China actively targets state and local officials to advance its political aims.

Federal authorities arrested Sun and Hu in September 2024, alleging Sun used her influence in the state government to covertly advance the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) agenda, including arranging a 2018 delegation from Henan Province at the request of Chinese officials. Prosecutors accused her of fraudulently obtaining invitation letters purportedly issued by the executive chamber, some bearing then-Lt. Gov. Hochul’s forged signature, to facilitate those visits.

A federal judge on Dec. 22 declared a mistrial in Sun’s case after a Brooklyn jury failed to reach a unanimous verdict against her and her husband, Chris Hu.

Despite the hung jury, the proceedings surfaced damaging evidence for the Hochul administration. Among the most notable were text messages in which Sun bragged to a Chinese consular official that Hochul was “much more obedient” than then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo.

In another, she claimed, “The deputy governor listens to me more than the governor does.”

Sun was terminated from her job in Hochul’s office in March 2023, but it did not mark an end to the administration’s dealings with Chinese officials, emails obtained by the DCNF show. The governor’s office considered a potential delegation visit with representatives from the People’s Government of Henan Province in July 2023.

According to the records, Ma Pengchao, an official with Henan Province’s foreign affairs office, asked Hochul’s staff to issue an official invitation letter for a six-member delegation led by He Jinping, vice chairman of the standing committee of the Henan People’s Congress.

The Chinese government also sought meetings with Hochul, Lt. Gov. Antonio Delgado or other senior state leaders. The stated purpose of the visit was to “deepen the friendly relations between Henan Province and New York State” and to “strengthen pragmatic cooperation” in areas such as trade, finance, higher education, culture and tourism, according to the emails.

Then–Assistant Secretary for Executive Operations Greg Lorjuste replied that the governor was “happy to hear from you and appreciates that you have extended this invitation to her,” noting that they would later confirm whether she’d be able to participate.

Ma responded by noting that he had the “great privilege of meeting with Her Excellency Hochul back in 2018,” referencing the earlier delegation organized during Sun’s tenure.

“Please convey our tremendous appreciation to Governor Hochul for considering to meet with the Henan delegation this time,” the official wrote, inviting Hochul or other state leaders to visit Henan.

Follow-up emails from the governor’s office requested names of the delegates, passport details and additional logistical information.

Much of the correspondence was handled by Xiaojiang “Elaine” Fan, who replaced Sun as director of Asian affairs in the governor’s office in 2021.

Fan has extensive family ties to Chinese state media and the CCP’s propaganda apparatus.

Her grandfather, Fan Changjiang, was a prominent CCP official who served as editor-in-chief of Xinhua News Agency, China’s state-run news outlet. Her father, Fan Dongsheng, served as president and editorial director of China Press — designated by the State Department in 2020 as a “PRC-controlled propaganda” outlet — and previously held a deputy director role within the CCP’s “Education Department of the News Bureau of the Central Propaganda Department,” according to an archived biography.

During her tenure in the Hochul administration, Fan attended several events hosted by the Chinese Consulate in New York and organizations linked to China’s United Front Work Department (UFWD), which the House Select Committee on the CCP describes as the Chinese government’s vehicle for political influence and intelligence operations abroad.

There is no public record indicating the Henan delegation ultimately visited New York in 2023, and the emails obtained through New York’s Freedom of Information Law do not explain why the proposed visit never materialized.

Hochul’s office did not respond to the DCNF’s multiple requests for comment. Fan, who left Hochul’s office in late 2023 to work on Scott Stringer’s New York City mayoral campaign, did not respond to a LinkedIn request for comment.

The Hochul administration has insisted it was unaware of Sun’s alleged scheme and says it moved swiftly to fire her once evidence of misconduct surfaced.

Even so, the continued engagement with Chinese officials after Sun’s departure is notable in light of longstanding federal warnings that Beijing actively cultivates relationships with state and local governments to advance its objectives.

In a 2022 bulletin, the National Counterintelligence and Security Center warned state and local officials that the Chinese government conducts political-influence operations through multiple channels, including the UFWD, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and other front groups.

The Hochul administration has a history of obstructing records requests related to the state’s interactions with the Chinese government and CCP-tied entities, including by falsely claiming that a search for correspondence related to China and Taiwan had yielded no records, a source familiar with the matter told the DCNF.

“The Linda Sun situation is just the tip of the iceberg, but the Hochul administration continues to block efforts to get the full story about its other officials’ interactions with the Chinese consulate and weird standoffishness toward Taiwan,” the source said. “This obstruction violates the law. Congress should use its subpoena power, and the State Legislature should also consider acting.”

Meanwhile, prosecutors say they intend to retry the case against Sun, who they also accused of doing a slew of other favors for Chinese officials in exchange for millions of dollars in business funneled to her husband’s seafood export company.

“Based on her brazen actions and blatant corruption, it’s entirely appropriate that the Eastern District of New York is preparing to retry the case,” Republican state Sen. Jake Ashby said in a statement to the DCNF.

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