A California city mayor has been charged with acting as an illegal agent of the Chinese government, the US Department of Justice has said.
The department added in a statement that Eileen Wang, 58, who was elected to the Arcadia City Council in November 2022, has agreed to plead guilty to a felony charge.
Wang resigned from her post as Mayor on Monday (May 11), and the charge against her carries a maximum term of 10 years in prison.
Context
The Justice Department said Wang and an accomplice, Yaoning "Mike" Sun — her then-fiancé and the treasurer of her 2022 election campaign — promoted pro-Chinese propaganda through a website they operated called U.S. News Center, which presented itself as a news source for the local Chinese American community.
Sun pleaded guilty to acting as an illegal agent of a foreign government in October 2025 and is serving a four-year prison sentence.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) said Wang and Sun worked at the direction and control of officials of the People's Republic of China (PRC) from late 2020 through 2022. They are alleged to have worked with US-based individuals to promote the PRC's interests by disseminating pro-PRC propaganda in the United States.
In a statement, Roman Rozhavsky, Assistant Director of the FBI's Counterintelligence and Espionage Division, said: "By her own admission, Eileen Wang secretly served the interests of the Chinese government. Let this serve as a clear warning: individuals who act on behalf of foreign governments to influence our democracy will be identified, investigated, and brought to justice."
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