California mayor to plead guilty to secretly working for Chinese government

The mayor of Arcadia, California, has agreed to plead guilty to acting as an illegal agent of the People’s Republic of China after secretly posting propaganda at the direction of Chinese officials before she was elected to public office, according to federal prosecutors. She has resigned from mayor.

Eileen Wang, 58, was charged on Monday with one count of acting in the United States as an illegal agent of a foreign government. She is expected to make her initial appearance Monday afternoon in federal court in downtown Los Angeles and plead guilty in the coming weeks.

Wang was elected in November 2022 to the Arcadia City Council, a five-member governing body from which the mayor is selected on a rotating basis. Arcadia is a city in Los Angeles County, east of Pasadena.

According to her plea agreement, Wang and Yaoning “Mike” Sun, 65, of Chino Hills, worked from late 2020 through 2022 at the direction and control of PRC government officials to promote the Chinese government’s interests in the United States, including by posting pro-PRC propaganda.

Sun was sentenced to four years in federal prison after pleading guilty in October 2025 to acting as an illegal agent of a foreign government.

Prosecutors said Wang and Sun operated U.S. News Center, a website that appeared to serve the local Chinese American community. They received and carried out directives from PRC officials to post pro-PRC content on the site.

In June 2021, a PRC official contacted Wang and others through WeChat and sent pre-written articles, including one denying genocide and forced labor in Xinjiang. Minutes later, Wang posted the article on her website and sent the official a link.

“So fast, thank you everyone,” the PRC official wrote after Wang and others in the group chat posted the material, according to prosecutors.

In August 2021, Wang and three other people in the same group chat posted the same article on their respective “news” websites after a PRC official thanked them for their “reporting,” according to the plea agreement. Wang later made edits requested by the official and sent a screenshot showing the article had been viewed 15,128 times.

“Great!,” the official wrote in response, according to prosecutors. Wang replied: “Thank you leader.”

In November 2021, Wang also communicated with John Chen, described in court documents as a high-level member of the PRC intelligence apparatus who regularly attended elite Chinese Communist Party functions and met personally with PRC President Xi Jinping.

Wang asked Chen to post a “news” article from her website and wrote, “This is what the Ministry of Foreign Affairs wants to send.”

Chen was sentenced in November 2024 to 20 months in federal prison after pleading guilty in New York to acting as an illegal agent of the PRC and conspiracy to bribe a public official.

Wang admitted that she never notified the Attorney General that she was acting in the United States as an agent of the PRC, prosecutors said. She also admitted she did not disclose on her website that some content had been posted at the direction of PRC government officials.

The charge carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in federal prison. The FBI is investigating the case.

“On Monday, federal authorities announced criminal charges against Eileen Wang for acting as an illegal agent of a foreign government,” Arcadia City Manager Dominic Lazzaretto said in a statement. “She has also resigned from the Arcadia City Council, vacating her position as Mayor.”

Lazzaretto said the case involves Wang’s individual conduct and that the alleged activity ended after she was sworn into office in December 2022. He said an internal review found that no city finances, staff members or decision-making processes were involved, and that the rest of the City Council is not under investigation.

“The allegations at the center of this case, that a foreign government sought to exert influence over a local elected official, are deeply troubling,” Lazzaretto added. “We take them seriously.”