A Southern California mayor has resigned from her position and agreed to plead guilty to acting as an illegal agent for the Chinese government, federal officials announced on Monday.
Eileen Wang, who served as the mayor of Arcadia, was charged in April with one count of acting as an illegal agent of a foreign government within the United States. She was accused of operating under the direction of Chinese officials by sharing content favorable to Beijing without notifying the US government as required by law.
The 58-year-old was elected to a five-person city council in November 2022, where the role of mayor is filled on a rotating basis.
Scope of the investigation
City manager Dominic Lazzaretto clarified in a news release that the investigation focused on individual conduct rather than municipal operations. He stated that no city finances or staff were involved and that the conduct in question ceased after Wang was sworn into office in December 2022.
Federal authorities confirmed that Wang has agreed to plead guilty to the felony charge, which carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in federal prison.
In a statement, Wang’s attorneys, Jason Liang and Brian Sun, said she acknowledges the gravity of the charge and accepts responsibility for past personal mistakes. They added that she is sorry for errors made in her personal life, while maintaining that her devotion to the Arcadia community remains unchanged.
Propagation of state content
According to the plea agreement, Wang worked alongside a colleague, Yaoning “Mike” Sun, between late 2020 and 2022. The pair acted on behalf of officials from the People’s Republic of China to promote state interests through propaganda in the US.
Mike Sun was sentenced to four years in prison last October after pleading guilty to the same charge. He was also documented as the treasurer for Wang’s 2022 election campaign.
The duo operated a news website called U.S. News Center, which targeted the Chinese American community. They were instructed by Chinese officials to populate the site with pro-PRC content.
In June 2021, a government official sent Wang a link to a letter published in the Los Angeles Times by the Chinese consul general in Los Angeles. The piece denied reports of persecution and forced labor involving Uyghurs in the Xinjiang province. Wang reportedly shared the link on her site within minutes of receiving it.
Ties to other agents
The US government and several other nations have formally declared that Beijing’s policies in Xinjiang constitute genocide and crimes against humanity.
Attorneys for Wang noted that she was engaged to Mike Sun at the time of the activities, though she stated the relationship ended in early 2024. Her legal team suggested that her trust in the wrong person led her astray.
Records also indicate that Wang communicated with John Chen, another individual who recently pleaded guilty to being an agent for the Chinese government and received a 20-month prison sentence.
Wang was expected to appear in a Los Angeles federal court on Monday, with a formal guilty plea anticipated in the coming weeks. Arcadia, located northeast of Los Angeles, has a population of approximately 53,000 and features a high concentration of Chinese residents.
