Linda Sun served in numerous roles, including as Asian Affairs director, first in the administration of Andrew Cuomo, then under Hochul.
The FBI reportedly raided the Long Island home of Kathy Hochul’s former deputy chief of staff, Linda Sun, an aide who played a significant role in the New York governor’s outreach to Chinese diplomats and pro-Beijing community groups in the state.
Neither Sun nor her husband, Chris Hu, was charged with any crimes or arrested, according to the New York Post, which reported on the raid, and it remains unclear what brought the bureau to their home early Tuesday. Sun, who was a deputy commissioner of labor after leaving her job as Hochul’s deputy chief, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
A source also told the Post that Sun was fired from her role last year after “evidence of misconduct” emerged and was referred to law enforcement.
In a statement to National Review, a spokesman for the FBI’s New York office confirmed only that it “conducted court-authorized law enforcement activity in Manhasset yesterday” and said he could not comment further.
The Post reported that the U.S. attorney’s office in Brooklyn had obtained the warrant for the search. A spokesman for that office, which also covers Long Island, declined NR’s request for comment.
Sun served in numerous roles in the New York governor’s office, including in diversity-focused posts and as Asian Affairs director, first in the administration of former governor Andrew Cuomo, then under Hochul. Before that, she was chief of staff for Grace Meng during the Queens congresswoman’s time in the New York state assembly. After leaving New York government in 2023, Sun was campaign manager for Austin Cheng, an unsuccessful Democratic primary candidate for a House seat in Long Island.
In her capacity as a staffer for the governor’s office under the Cuomo and Hochul administrations, Sun attended events hosted by the Chinese consulate general in New York and pro-Beijing community organizations, including the 2022 iteration of the annual “Evening of Chinese Culture” event hosted by a group linked to China’s political-influence ecosystem.
Despite the Biden administration’s boycott of the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing over the Chinese Communist Party’s atrocities against Uyghurs and other minorities, Sun took part in a New York-based event endorsing the games, alongside China’s hard-line envoy, Ambassador Huang Ping.
In 2017, Sun, while working for New York State’s economic-development agency, attended an event that welcomed a Chinese delegation visiting New York from Hebei province. According to the Voice of Chinese, a local pro-Beijing outlet that covers Chinese-government events in New York, that group came from Hebei’s branch of the United Front Work Department — the CCP’s powerful political-influence arm.
Her former boss has publicly embraced China’s diplomats in New York. At a parade to celebrate the Lunar New Year in 2023, Hochul briefly waved a People’s Republic of China flag, then marched next to Huang.
Hochul has also cultivated a relationship with the China General Chamber of Commerce USA, a business group representing numerous Chinese state-owned firms, including several that have been blacklisted by the U.S. government over their ties to the People’s Liberation Army. In 2022, Hochul spoke at the group’s annual gala, emphasizing that she had previously addressed several of the chamber’s events.
CGCC gave Sun credit for facilitating its access to Hochul, thanking the aide for inviting it to a reception with the governor in Albany to mark Asian American and Pacific Islander Month a few months later. The previous year, the chamber issued a press release to congratulate Sun on her appointment to the deputy chief of staff role, stating that it “has had the honor and pleasure to work with Ms. Sun and her colleagues on many charitable projects.”