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.

But after her event, State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said in a briefing that “the consul general was not expelled” by the United States government.

"Our understanding is the consul general reached the end of a regularly scheduled rotation in August, so rotated out of the position,” Miller said. “When it comes to the status of particular employees of a foreign mission, I’d refer you to the foreign county to speak to it. But there was no expulsion action.”

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.”

Maya Kaufman contributed to this report.