Eileen Wang, Arcadia, California mayor to plead guilty to being foreign agent for China and to secretly disseminating content on a pro China news website at the behest of the Chinese government.
The mayor of a Southern California city with an overwhelming Asian American population has resigned after admitting she secretly acted as an agent for the Chinese government, according to a federal plea agreement unsealed on Monday.
Eileen Wang, 58, the mayor of Arcadia, California, resigned on Monday after federal prosecutors announced they had charged her with acting as an illegal agent of the Chinese government. She will plead guilty to the charge, according to a plea deal.
A magistrate judge set a $25,000 bond and directed Wang to hand over all passports and travel-related documents. The felony charge comes with a potential sentence of up to 10 years in prison the Latimes reported.
Arcadia Mayor by day and secret spy for China by night
Federal prosecutors allege Wang spent years working under the direction of Chinese government officials before rising into elected office in Los Angeles County in 2022.
Eileen Wang was elected in November 2022 to the Arcadia City Council.
The court document outlined Wang’s efforts, beginning in late 2020 and continuing until at least the end of 2022, to operate a purported news website called U.S. News Center that circulated pro-China content at the direction of Chinese government officials.
Authorities have described the website as a fake news platform targeting Chinese Americans.
Campaign photos and promotional images used during her political rise depicted Wang in heavily polished and retouched portraits that projected a glamorous and approachable persona to voters.
But unedited public images revealed a stark contrast to the stylized campaign photographs that once appeared across city political materials and social media.
California mayor worked alongside Chinese national disseminating ‘pro-China’ material
Wang covertly worked with a man in Southern California named Mike Sun, a Chinese national, to disseminate the information according to the nytimes.
Mr. Sun, who is also known as Yaoning Sun, was sentenced in February to four years in prison for his role in the operation. He was previously engaged to Wang and had worked on her election campaign as the treasurer, according to public records.
Federal prosecutors say Wang never disclosed that the Chinese government was directing the content appearing on her website.
The case became even more alarming to investigators because Wang ultimately ascended into public office.
‘Individuals in our country who covertly do the bidding of foreign governments undermine our democracy,’ Bill Essayli, the first assistant U.S. attorney for the Central District of California, said in a statement. ‘This plea agreement is the latest success in our determination to defend the homeland against China’s efforts to corrupt our institutions.’
Exerting influence over Chinese American community
The guilty plea comes as the Chinese government continues to exert influence over local elections across the United States to advance its interests, targeting the Chinese American community, prosecutors allege.
Arcadia is situated around 13 miles northeast of Los Angeles with a population of roughly 53,000 and is about 59 percent Asian American, according to census data.
In a 2024 interview, Wang said that she moved to Southern California from China 30 years ago. Her mother was a Chinese medicine and acupuncture doctor, and Wang’s father was a physician in Sichuan province, The Los Angeles Times reported.
According to the plea agreement, Wang posted ‘pro-China’ content directed to a Chinese American audience. According to court documents, Wang never disclosed that she had been instructed by the government to post the content.
In one example, Wang was told through an encrypted message to publish an essay ‘explaining China’s stance on the Xinjiang issue — there is no genocide in Xinjiang; there is no such thing as ‘forced labor’ in any production activity, including cotton production,’ the message read. ‘Spreading such rumor is to defame China, destroy Xinjiang’s safety and stability, weaken local economy, suppress China’s development.’
A few minutes later, Ms. Wang posted the article. Over the next couple of months, she made tweaks to the article at the direction of a Chinese government leader.
In another instance cited in court documents, Wang sent a pro-China article from her site to Mr. Sun and asked him to help distribute it. In a message, she told him, ‘This is what the Ministry of Foreign Affairs wants to send.’
Local politician’s undisclosed ties to Chinese officials presented national security concern
Ms. Wang’s lawyers in a release, stated that Wang ‘recognized the seriousness of this charge and has agreed to accept responsibility for her past mistakes.’ The statement emphasized that her misconduct was carried out in her personal capacity, not in her position as an elected official.
The Arcadia City Council will select a new mayor during its next meeting, the city manager, Dominic Lazzaretto, said in a statement.
‘The allegations at the center of this case — that a foreign government sought to exert influence over a local elected official — are deeply troubling,’ Mr. Lazzaretto said. He added that no city finances or staff members were involved, according to an internal review.
Assistant Attorney General for National Security John A. Eisenberg said Wang’s rise to political office while allegedly maintaining undisclosed ties to Chinese officials represented a serious national security concern.
‘Individuals elected to public office in the United States should act only for the people of the United States that they represent,’ Eisenberg said.
‘It is deeply concerning that someone who previously received and executed directives from PRC government officials is now in a position of public trust at all, but particularly so because that relationship with that foreign government had never been disclosed,’ he added.
