Arcadia Mayor to Plead Guilty to Acting as Illegal Chinese Agent

The mayor of Arcadia, California, has agreed to plead guilty to acting as an illegal agent of China’s government after authorities said she helped spread pro-Beijing propaganda in the U.S. at the direction of Chinese officials.

Eileen Wang, 58, was charged in federal court in Los Angeles with acting as an illegal agent of a foreign government, the Justice Department announced Monday. The charge carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison.

According to court documents, Wang agreed to plead guilty and is expected to make her initial appearance Monday afternoon in federal court in downtown Los Angeles.

Wang was elected to the Arcadia City Council in November 2022. The mayoral position rotates among the council’s five members in the city of about 57,000 people in the San Gabriel Valley.

Federal prosecutors said Wang worked from late 2020 through 2022 with Yaoning “Mike” Sun of Chino Hills at the direction of officials from the People’s Republic of China to promote Chinese government interests in the U.S.

According to the Arcadia’s website, Wang resigned on Monday.

Operated US News Center

Authorities said the pair operated U.S. News Center, a website aimed at the local Chinese American community, and posted content provided by Chinese officials.

In one example cited by prosecutors, a Chinese official sent Wang and others a pre-written article through the WeChat messaging app in June 2021 denying allegations of genocide and forced labor in China’s Xinjiang region. Minutes later, Wang posted the article on her website and sent the official a link to the post, according to the plea agreement.

In another incident in August 2021, prosecutors said Wang edited an article at the request of a Chinese official and later sent a screenshot showing the article had been viewed more than 15,000 times. The official responded, “Great!,” and Wang replied, “Thank you leader,” according to court documents.

Prosecutors also said Wang communicated in November 2021 with John Chen, described in court records as a high-level member of China’s intelligence apparatus who had attended Chinese Communist Party functions and met personally with President Xi Jinping. Wang allegedly asked Chen to post an article from her website and wrote, “This is what the Ministry of Foreign Affairs wants to send.”

Chen pleaded guilty in New York in 2024 to acting as an illegal agent of China and conspiracy to bribe a public official and was sentenced to 20 months in prison.

Sun pleaded guilty in 2025 to acting as an illegal agent of a foreign government and is serving a four-year federal prison sentence.

In her plea agreement, Wang admitted she did not notify the U.S. attorney general that she was acting as an agent of the Chinese government and did not disclose on her website that some of its content had been directed by Chinese officials.

The FBI investigated the case.

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