Consul general Huang Ping is believed to be the official who allegedly tasked Linda Sun with directing Hochul and Cuomo to hew to Beijing’s priorities.
Following a blockbuster indictment that directly implicated China’s top diplomat in New York in a scheme to manipulate the governor’s office, his status remains unclear as the State Department, Governor Kathy Hochul, and the Chinese consulate general traded competing claims today.
Hochul and State both said Chinese consul general Huang Ping left his post in New York, though they offered different accounts of the reason behind his departure. China’s diplomatic outpost, meanwhile, denied that there was any change in Huang’s status.
On Wednesday afternoon, multiple media outlets reported that Hochul had said during an event in Manhattan that she requested the expulsion of Huang. The previous day, Huang was likely referred to in a federal indictment as an alleged key player in a scheme by former Hochul aide Linda Sun to induce the New York governor’s office to hew to Beijing’s political priorities by shunning Taiwanese officials, blocking gubernatorial statements on atrocities against Uyghurs, and convincing the state government to issue glowing statements about Chinese-government activities.
Sun was arrested yesterday with her husband, Chris Hu — who was accused of laundering the financial proceeds of her activities — and pleaded not guilty. But the indictment’s frequent references to “PRC Official-1,” an unnamed Chinese diplomat who allegedly tasked Sun with directing Hochul, and her predecessor, Andrew Cuomo, to back China’s line strongly suggested that this person’s true identity was Huang Ping.
That led Hochul to press the State Department for his expulsion.
Hochul said at the event that she had just spoken with a high-ranking State Department official and “conveyed my desire to have the consul general from the People’s Republic of China at the New York Mission expelled, and I’ve been informed that the consul general is no longer at the New York Mission,” according to CNN.
She called that “a statement by us that we’re not tolerating this” and added that “anybody representing that government needs to move on. That was what we made clear.”
But both the State Department and the Chinese consulate general disputed her characterization of Huang’s status — though in different ways.
“The consul general was not expelled,” State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said at today’s daily press briefing. He said Hochul had spoken to the deputy secretary of state.
“Our understanding is that the consul general reached the end of a regular schedule rotation at the end of August and so rotated out of the position but was not expelled,” Miller said.
Miller referred reporters to the Chinese consulate general but added, “There was no expulsion action.” He also said that the U.S. takes foreign interference “very seriously, as you saw by the action the Department of Justice took yesterday.”
But the Chinese consulate general, asked about Miller’s statement that Huang’s tour had ended, referred National Review to the State Department.
A spokesperson for the Chinese diplomatic outpost denied that Huang had left his role. “Consul General Huang Ping is performing his duties as usual. We hope the media will refrain from sensationalizing false information,” the spokesperson told National Review.
Referring to images the New York Post published today that depicted what it said was Huang’s departure from New York, the consulate general claimed that it wasn’t Huang.