New York Gov. Kathy Hochul’s former deputy chief of staff, Linda Sun, has been arrested on suspicion of being a Chinese spy along with her husband, Chris Hu.
Sun faces charges of conspiracy to commit money laundering, visa fraud, and alien smuggling. Hu is also charged with conspiracy to commit money laundering, as well as bank fraud, and misuse of identification.
Former New York Governor Kathy Hochul aide Linda Sun leaves Brooklyn Federal Court after her arraignment in New York on Sept. 3, 2024. Corey Sipkin/AP Photo
Sun, who used the aliases Wen Sun, Ling Da Sun, and Linda Hu, previously worked in the office of former N.Y. Gov. Andrew Cuomo, including as his deputy chief diversity officer for two years.
A spokesman for former Gov. Cuomo said in an emailed statement to The Epoch Times that, although Sun was later promoted to a more influential position under Hochul, during his time in office she “was one of many community liaisons who had little to no interaction with the governor.”
She worked for Hochul beginning in September 2021, first as deputy chief of staff, later as deputy commissioner for strategic business development for the New York Department of Labor, until she was fired in March 2023.
During her time in public office, it is alleged she secretly worked to further the interests of the Chinese government, including blocking representatives from Taiwan from having access to the N.Y. governor’s office, arranging meetings between Chinese officials and members of the N.Y. government, and altering the governor’s messaging to suit the interests of the Chinese Communist Party.
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She is also alleged to have forged invitation letters from the N.Y. governor’s office for CCP officials to illegally come to the U.S. and meet with American government officials.
Her husband allegedly received business-related financial perks from China in exchange for her cooperation.
“The illicit scheme enriched the defendant’s family to the tune of millions of dollars,” said U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York Breon Peace.
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—Lily Zhou and Stacy Robinson
DOW SLIDES
Wall Street kicked off September on a sour note, with the leading benchmark indexes recording sharp losses on disappointing U.S. economic data.
Blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average plummeted by more than 600 points. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index fell 3.3 percent, while the S&P 500 tumbled about 2 percent.
Traders were spooked by worse-than-expected U.S. manufacturing numbers.
The Institute for Supply Management’s (ISM) August Manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI)—a general indicator of where the sector is heading—fell short of market expectations. While employment edged up last month, new orders slumped and prices rose.
The index has been stuck in contraction territory for five consecutive months.
The alternative S&P Global Manufacturing PMI weakened slightly worse than what the market projected, tumbling for the second straight month.
Chris Williamson, the chief business economist at S&P Global Market Intelligence, warned that the report sent “warning signals on economic conditions.”
“A further downward lurch in the PMI points to the manufacturing sector acting as an increased drag on the economy midway through the third quarter,“ he wrote. ”Forward-looking indicators suggest this drag could intensify in the coming months.”
Last month, the U.S. stock market suffered a three-day selloff, partly fueled by the critical manufacturing reports that triggered wider recession fears.
Additionally, construction spending dipped 0.3 percent last month, the first monthly drop since October 2022, according to the Census Bureau.
Chipmaker Nvidia, a $3 trillion company at the center of the artificial intelligence craze, crashed almost 10 percent to kick off the holiday-shortened trading week. The performance weighed on the broader stock market.
September has typically been the worst month for the financial markets in the last ten years, with an average loss of 2.3 percent.
The next key reports that could drive the markets will be the ISM Services PMI (Sept. 5) and the August jobs report (Sept. 6). The markets are anticipating little change in the services data. Economists are forecasting 160,000 new jobs and an unemployment rate of 4.2 percent—both improvements from the July employment figures.
—Andrew Moran
BOOKMARKS
Mongolian President Ukhnaagiin Khurelsukh refused to enforce the International Criminal Court’s arrest warrant against President Vladimir Putin while the Russian leader was visiting Mongolia’s capitol on Tuesday. The court issued the warrant last year; it alleges war crimes by Putin and is theoretically valid in its 124 member-states.
A Montana law that forbids voters from registering in more than one polling location or multiple states will remain blocked for the time being. U.S. District Judge Brian Morris issued an injunction to halt the law in April on the grounds that it was unconstitutional; his decision was upheld by an appeals court on Tuesday.
The Philadelphia Eagles are endeavoring to remove fake ads that show the team endorsing Vice President Kamala Harris in her run for the Oval Office. Vandals found a way to unlock the glass walls of several bus shelters around Philadelphia and replaced the ads that were meant to appear there.
A federal judge has struck down a ban on the concealed-carrying of handguns on public transit in Illinois. U.S. District Judge Iain D. Johnston said the ban violated the Second Amendment, and “severely restricts plaintiffs from exercising their right to self-defense outside of the home.”
U.S. forces have captured ISIS leader Khaled Ahmed al-Dandal, who is suspected of having helped five members of the terror group escape from a detention center in Raqqa, Syria, on Aug. 29. Two of the escapees have been recaptured, but three others remain at large.
—Stacy Robinson
