Eileen Wang, the mayor of Arcadia, Calif., 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 unsealed the same day.
The felony charge comes with a potential sentence of up to 10 years in prison.
The court document outlined Ms. 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. Ms. Wang covertly worked with a man in Southern California named Mike Sun, a Chinese national, to disseminate the information.
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 Ms. Wang and had worked on her election campaign as the treasurer, according to public records. Ms. Wang, 58, was elected in November 2022 to the Arcadia City Council, and the mayor is selected from the five-person council on a rotating basis.
“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.”
The Chinese government has exerted influence over local elections across the United States to advance its interests, targeting the Chinese American community in particular. In some cases, federal investigators have arrested the leaders of covert operations.
According to the plea agreement, Ms. Wang posted propaganda directed to a Chinese American audience. In one example, Ms. 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 the court documents, she 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.”
In a statement, Ms. Wang’s lawyers, Brian A. Sun and Jason Liang, said she “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. Brian Sun is not related to Mike Sun.
When Mike Sun was charged and sentenced, he was accused of helping a politician he considered friendly to Chinese interests win a seat on the City Council. The population of Arcadia, in Los Angeles County, is about 59 percent Asian American, according to census data.
Prosecutors did not name Ms. Wang in the documents charging Mr. Sun, but other details in those court documents pointed to her as the council member who was discussed.
Ms. Wang tried to distance herself from Mr. Sun in the months since he was sent to prison, but she faced increasing pressure to resign.
Another man, John Chen, who prosecutors said served as a go-between for Mr. Sun and the Chinese government, was sentenced in 2024 to 20 months in prison for acting as an illegal foreign agent.
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.
Pooja Salhotra covers breaking news across the United States.
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