Andrew M. Cuomo’s mayoral campaign hired an adviser who was once the chairman of a state-owned oil company in China, a position typically held by people with close ties to the Chinese government.

安德鲁·科莫的市长竞选团队聘请的一位顾问曾是中国一家国有石油公司的董事长，这个职位通常由与中国政府关系密切的人担任。

In March, Mr. Cuomo announced that the adviser, Larry He, had become the campaign’s Asian outreach director to help garner support among New York City’s 600,000 Chinese Americans and other Asian communities ahead of this month’s Democratic primary.

今年3月，科莫宣布，顾问拉里·贺(Larry He)成为竞选团队的亚裔外联主管，以帮助科莫在本月的民主党初选之前获得纽约市60万华裔美国人和其他亚裔社区的支持。

Mr. He worked at the China-owned Guangxi Beibu Gulf Investment Coastal Petrochemical Co. and its parent company a decade ago, according to review of Chinese company documents and several online biographies. (His Chinese name is He Lining.)

根据对中国公司文件和几份网上简历的查阅，拉里·贺十年前曾在中国拥有的广西北部湾投资沿海石化有限责任公司及其母公司工作。（他的中文名字叫贺立宁。）

Mr. He was chairman of the oil firm and also held other titles at the parent company, including director of asset management and head of investment promotion, before entering the New York political scene. He is now the chief of staff to State Assemblyman William Colton, who represents parts of Brooklyn.

在进入纽约政界之前，贺立宁曾担任这家石油公司的董事长，并在母公司任有其他职务，包括资产管理总监和投资推广主管。他现在是代表布鲁克林部分地区的州议员威廉·科尔顿的幕僚长。

In an interview, Mr. He acknowledged that his employment history in China could raise questions about his connections to the Chinese government and said he had omitted the experiences from a recent résumé to avoid causing concern.

在一次采访中，贺立宁承认他在中国的工作经历可能会让人质疑他与中国政府的关系，并说他在最近的简历中略去了这些经历，以避免引起关注。

Mr. He denied any past or current links to the Chinese Communist Party, saying he was never a member and that he had become a naturalized U.S. citizen in 2024 — undergoing a process that involved renouncing his Chinese citizenship.

贺立宁否认过去或现在与中国共产党有任何联系，说自己从来都不是党员，他在2024年入籍美国，这一过程包括放弃他的中国国籍。

“I don’t act under any kind of influence of the Chinese government or any entities,” Mr. He said.

 “我的行为不受中国政府或任何实体的任何影响，”贺立宁说。

Still, because his senior post brought him into contact with government and Communist Party officials, experts in Chinese government and politics said he met the criteria of someone whom China might try to use to influence politics in the United States.

不过，由于他的高级职位使他接触到政府和共产党官员，中国政府和政治专家表示，他符合中国可能试图用来影响美国政治的人选标准。

“Campaign staff with strong ties to top state-owned enterprises in China would be a prime target for pressure, influence or co-option,” said Alex Joske, an analyst who has testified before a Congressional commission on Chinese influence operations.

分析师亚历克斯·乔斯克说，“与中国顶级国有企业关系密切的竞选工作人员将成为施压、影响或拉拢的主要目标。”乔斯克曾在国会一个委员会就中国的影响力行动作证。

After The New York Times sought comment from Mr. He for this article, he resigned from Mr. Cuomo’s campaign, saying he planned to return to his full-time position with Mr. Colton’s office “effective immediately.”

在《纽约时报》就本文征求贺立宁置评后，他辞去了科莫竞选团队的职务，称他计划“立即”回到科尔顿办公室，担任全职岗位。

“Let’s be crystal clear, it is not a crime to be born in China, it is not a crime to be an immigrant in this nation, I am a proud U.S. citizen and the premise of this story is xenophobic, false, defamatory and harmful to me and my family,” the statement said, but added: “I do not want to be a distraction to this campaign.”

“让我们明确一点，在中国出生不是犯罪，在这个国家成为移民也不是犯罪，我是一名自豪的美国公民，这个报道是以仇外、虚假、诽谤为前提的，对我和我的家人有害，”他表示，此外还称“我不想成为这场竞选活动的干扰因素”。

The Chinese government has made repeated efforts to target dissidents and infiltrate New York politics in recent years, according to federal prosecutors. An aide hired by Mr. Cuomo when he was governor in 2012 was charged last year with acting as an unregistered agent of China. She has pleaded not guilty.

据联邦检察官称，中国政府近年来一再努力打击异见人士，并对纽约政界进行渗透。去年，科莫在2012年担任州长时雇佣的一名助手被控充当未注册的中国代理人。她拒不认罪。

And Mayor Eric Adams, who is running for re-election, employed his own aide whose homes were raided last year by F.B.I. agents looking for evidence of Chinese influence. She has not been charged and has denied any wrongdoing.

正在竞选连任的市长埃里克·亚当斯雇佣的助手在去年曾遭联邦调查局搜查住所，以寻找中国影响的证据。她没有受到指控，并否认有任何不当行为。

Mr. He said that he did not tell anyone on Mr. Cuomo’s campaign, which has paid him $15,000 for organizing community events, about his previous work in China.

贺立宁说，他没有告诉科莫竞选团队的任何人他之前在中国的工作。科莫曾向他支付1.5万美元，用于组织社区活动。

A spokesman for Mr. Cuomo’s campaign said in a statement that it had accepted Mr. He’s resignation on Friday “with regret.”

科莫竞选团队的一名发言人在声明中表示，周五，他们“遗憾地”接受了贺立宁的辞呈。

Mr. He, 48, was born in northwestern China and attended university in Wuhan before earning a doctorate in ecological economics in 2007 at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in New York State, according to his résumé.

根据简历，48岁的贺立宁出生于中国西北部，在武汉上大学，2007年在纽约州伦斯勒理工学院获得生态经济学博士学位。

Before graduating, he served as an intern at the State Assembly in Albany for Mr. Colton and then worked for a few years at electric grid operators in New York and California.

毕业前，他在奥尔巴尼的州议会为科尔顿做实习工作，然后在纽约和加利福尼亚的电网运营公司工作了几年。

Mr. He said he moved back to China in late 2010 to care for his grandmother. The Chinese economy was booming, he said, and with a doctorate from a prestigious American university, his talents were in demand.

贺立宁说，他在2010年底搬回中国照顾祖母。他说，当时中国经济正在蓬勃发展，而他拥有美国一所著名大学的博士学位，他的才能很受欢迎。

He became director of asset management at a state-run investment firm called Guangxi Beibu Gulf Investment Group Corp. in 2011. In that role, Mr. He had some familiarity with the sprawling array of companies controlled by the group, ranging from oil firms to toll roads and even a water company. He left in 2015.

2011年，他成为国有投资公司广西北部湾投资集团有限公司的资产管理总监。在这个职位上，他接近了该集团控制的众多公司（从石油公司到收费公路，甚至还有一家自来水公司）。他于2015年离职。

During his tenure, according to a prospectus, Guangxi Beibu was among the biggest shareholders in a tin company whose investors included two people with close ties to the highest level of Chinese state power: the older sister and brother-in-law of China’s president, Xi Jinping.

根据招股说明书，在他任职期间，广西北部湾投资集团是一家锡业公司的最大股东之一，该公司的投资者包括两名与中国最高权力层关系密切的人：中国国家主席习近平的姐姐和姐夫。

Mr. He said he did not know about the Xi family’s stake in the company.

贺立宁说，他不知道习近平家族在该公司持有股份。

He said he left China because he was “fed up” with the state company’s stifling bureaucracy. “That’s not the life I wanted,” he said.

他说他离开中国是因为他“受够了”国有企业令人窒息的官僚作风。“那不是我想要的生活，”他说。

In 2016, Mr. He and his wife bought a house outside of Syracuse, around the same time he became a partner in a small investment company there.

2016年，贺立宁和妻子在锡拉丘兹郊外买了一栋房子，大约在同一时间，他成为了那里一家小型投资公司的合伙人。

He also began helping a fish processing company in Kentucky, Two Rivers Fisheries, find Chinese investors. The company catches Asian carp, an invasive species, and turns it into fish balls, pet food and fertilizer.

他还开始帮助肯塔基州的一家鱼类加工公司Two Rivers Fisheries寻找中国投资者。该公司捕获入侵物种亚洲鲤鱼，并将其制成鱼丸、宠物食品和肥料。

“He helped me bring the investors, and he helped me find the buyers,” said Angie Yu, the founder. “He worked really hard.”

“他帮我带来了投资者，也帮我找到了买家，”创始人安吉·余（音）说。“他工作真的很努力。”

Within a few years, he left the private sector and rose swiftly in South Brooklyn politics. He and his wife volunteered for Susan Zhuang, a conservative Democrat, in her successful 2023 campaign for a City Council seat centered in the Brooklyn neighborhood of Bensonhurst. Ms. Zhuang did not answer questions about Mr. He.

没过几几年，他离开了私企，在南布鲁克林政界迅速崛起。2023年，保守派民主党人庄文怡成功竞选布鲁克林的本森赫斯特社区市议会席位，贺立宁和妻子自愿为她提供帮助。庄文怡没有回答有关贺立宁的问题。

In late 2023, Mr. He became Mr. Colton’s chief of staff, the job previously held by Ms. Zhuang, at a salary of $55,000. Mr. Colton did not respond to messages seeking comment.

2023年底，贺立宁成为科尔顿的幕僚长，这个职位此前由庄文怡担任，薪水为5.5万美元。科尔顿没有回复寻求置评的消息。

Mr. He said he felt a calling to enter public service in the United States. “I always have this obligation to help people,” he said.

贺立宁说，他感到一种在美国从事公共服务的召唤。“我一直觉得有责任帮助别人，”他说。

In leaving behind a high-ranking business post in China, Mr. He followed an unusual career path, experts on Chinese influence said.

研究中国影响力的专家说，贺立宁离开在中国的高级商业职位后，走的是一条不同寻常的职业道路。

Andrew Wedeman, a retired political scientist at Georgia State University who studies Chinese corruption, noted that Mr. He left a position of influence in China “to return to the U.S. to become the chief of staff of an Assemblyman.”

佐治亚州立大学研究中国腐败问题的退休政治学家安德鲁·韦德曼指出，贺立宁离开了在中国有影响力的职位，“回到美国成为一名州议员的幕僚长”。

“Seems like a very odd transition,” Mr. Wedeman added.

“这似乎是一个非常奇怪的转型，”韦德曼还说。