New York’s governor is calling for the expulsion of China’s consul general after an aide was indicted

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said Wednesday that she has requested the expulsion of China’s Consul General in New York, Huang Ping, after her former aide was criminally charged in a US court as an agent for Beijing.

“I have conveyed my desire to expel the consul general from the People’s Republic of China and the New York mission and have been informed that the consul general is no longer at the New York mission,” Hochul, the state’s top official. , he said.

The governor also said he spoke with a “senior State Department official” about the matter at the request of US Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller in Washington denied Huang had been expelled, instead characterizing the official’s departure as “the end of a regularly scheduled rotation”.

“That said,” Miller continued, “foreign interference, including attempts to influence through covert activities that should be registered under the Foreign Agents Registration Act and are not, are things we take very seriously.”