“I was just on the phone at the request of Secretary of State Blinken, speaking with a high-ranking State Department official, and I conveyed my desire to have the consul general from the People’s Republic of China in the New York mission expelled,” Hochul said at an event in Manhattan. “And I have been informed that the consul general is no longer in the New York mission.”  Kathy Hochul, Governor of the State of New York

United States Department of State
Washington DC
4 September 2024

Department Press Briefing
Matthew Miller, Department Spokesperson

QUESTION: Yeah, slightly separate issue, but the governor of New York, Kathy Hochul, has said that she requested the expulsion of China’s consul general in New York and had spoken to the Secretary of State about that. Can you confirm that that’s happened?
MR MILLER: So I saw the governor’s statement. She actually spoke to the Deputy Secretary of State earlier today. The – so first of all, the consul general was not expelled. Our understanding is that the consul general reached the end of a regular, scheduled rotation in August, and so rotated out of the position – but was not expelled. But of course when it comes to the status of particular employees of a foreign mission, I would refer you to the foreign country, but there was – to speak to it, but there was no expulsion action.
QUESTION: Okay, and I – presuming this is related to someone in her office who was working for the Chinese Government, there’s been law enforcement action on that. But is that – you say he – the consul wasn’t expelled, but was there – is there a sort of grounds for expulsion or is that something that the department has considered?
MR MILLER: So, I’m not going to speak to anything that we might have considered or – especially when it comes to an action that wasn’t taken. In this case, this particular individual was not expelled, just reached the end of a regular, scheduled rotation. That said, foreign interference, including attempts to influence by – through covert activities that should be registered under the Foreign Agents Registration Act and are not registered – are things that we take very seriously, as you saw by the action the Department of Justice took yesterday.
QUESTION: Do you know when that happened, when he left?
MR MILLER: It was the end of August, is my understanding.
QUESTION: Okay, and is there a new consul general who’s – who you guys —
MR MILLER: I would defer – I would defer to the foreign mission to speak to their employees. I assume that there’s a new consul general rotating in. That’s the general course of action. But whether one has arrived already, I just don’t know.
QUESTION: Okay.
QUESTION: So, which deputy secretary did she speak to?
MR MILLER: To Kurt Campbell.
QUESTION: Because you know there’s more than one.
MR MILLER: I’m aware of that.
QUESTION: Okay.

Politico
Washington DC
4 September 2024

New York
Chinese consul general removed after arrest of former New York staffer, Hochul says
The governor said she does not see a need for stepped-up background checks.
By Bill Mahoney

ALBANY, New York — The Chinese consul general in New York has been removed, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said Wednesday — a day after her former gubernatorial staffer Linda Sun was arrested on charges involving alleged aid to the Chinese government.

“I was just on the phone at the request of Secretary of State Blinken, speaking with a high-ranking State Department official, and I conveyed my desire to have the consul general from the People’s Republic of China in the New York mission expelled,” Hochul said at an event in Manhattan. “And I have been informed that the consul general is no longer in the New York mission.”

Hochul didn’t offer any additional details, saying she was “momentarily out of this room” when a return call came. An attempt to reach the office of Consul General Huang Ping was unsuccessful. Sun was arrested on Tuesday. She faces 10 criminal charges centering on allegations that she used her position in the governor’s office under Hochul and her predecessor, Gov. Andrew Cuomo, to boost the Chinese government.

Sun is accused of collecting payments to help shape the state’s messaging around Taiwan and encourage meetings between New York’s leaders and Chinese officials. At one point, she allegedly forged Hochul’s signature on a letter inviting a Chinese trade delegation.

The governor declined to weigh in Taiwan’s autonomy Wednesday, saying she’d leave such matters to President Joe Biden’s administration. But she said she “requested the State Department to take appropriate action in response to the dangerous and outrageous actions taken by the People’s Republic of China, and they are involved.”

Sun was brought into the executive branch by Cuomo. She was promoted to deputy chief of staff by Hochul soon after she took office in 2021.  Hochul on Wednesday repeatedly highlighted the fact that Sun was hired by Cuomo and brushed her off as a “mid-level employee” in her administration.  “Her access to information was fairly limited,” Hochul said. “We’re talking about correspondence and invitations and information like that.”

A review of the governor’s schedules indicates that Sun was in the room with Hochul for publicly disclosed meetings on 22 occasions from the time she took office in August 2021 through May 2022.  That included a 2021 meeting where the only attendees were Hochul, Sun and Huang, the consul general.  Sun also participated in a meeting that year between Hochul and Irish Taoiseach Micheál Martin.

Hochul brushed off requests from Republicans to launch a state investigation into the Sun matter.
“There was a very thorough investigation done by the Eastern District of New York,” she said. “The length of their indictment is quite voluminous and impressive.”

She added that it would be “quite expensive” to conduct another investigation and said she doesn’t see a need to overhaul the way the state screen employees.  “I feel confident in our vetting practice right now,” the governor said. “We have very high levels of background checks. They take an enormous amount of time — they will go back basically to people’s kindergarten activities.”