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The former mayor of a California city has resigned after admitting to acting as an illegal foreign agent of China in a federal plea deal unsealed on Monday.
Eileen Wang, the former mayor of Arcadia in Los Angeles county, agreed with prosecutors that she worked with the People’s Republic of China to boost propaganda with a fake news website on US soil between 2020 and 2022.
She was elected to Arcadia City Council in November 2022.
Wang, 58, worked with her then fiance, Yaoning “Mike” Sun, on a web site called “U.S. News Center,” which claimed to be news source for Chinese Americans, according to court documents.
But in reality the pair were carrying out Beijing’s orders through the site.
Wang and Sun “executed directives” from the Chinese government, posting propaganda designed to boost China, all while reporting back to their masters with screenshots showing how many people viewed the stories, according to the plea agreement.
In one case, Wang’s spymaster ordered her to post pre-written news articles, including a PRC official-written essay in the Los Angeles Times, the plea deal states.
“There is no genocide in Xinjiang; there is no such thing as ‘forced labour’ in any production activity, including cotton production. Spreading such rumour is to defame China, destroy Xinjiang’s safety and stability,” wrote Wang’s master, according to the plea agreement.
Wang complied and her handler wrote back, “So fast, thank you everyone.”
In another case, Wang’s PRC boss commended her on page views received by a certain piece of propaganda. Wang wrote back, “Thank you leader.”
Wang pleaded guilty to the federal charge at her arraignment in downtown Los Angeles on Monday afternoon. She faces a maximum of 10 years in prison.
LA’s top federal prosecutor, Bill Essayli, said this is not the first time China has been caught trying to exert its influence in the United States.
“Ms Wang is just the latest to act as an agent for the PRC and it should terrify Americans that she was able to rise to the highest levels of local office in her city,” Essayli said.
Under the terms of the plea agreement, Wang admitted that that she acted under the control of Chinese officials to promote propaganda in the US.
Prosecutors in 2024 charged Sun with conspiracy and acting as an illegal agent of a foreign government.
Wang said her relationship with Sun ended that year. Her ex-lover also served as campaign manager for her City Council run. The mayor of Arcadia is drawn from the Council on a rotating basis.
Wang tried to distance herself from Sun in 2025, saying she “not responsible for the action of others,” and would not resign from the post she then held on the City Council.
Sun in February was sentenced to four years in federal prison for acting as a covert agent of the PRC.
“For years, Sun received and executed taskings from Chinese government officials, distorted our public discourse by disseminating Chinese propaganda, and surveilled groups in the United States that China viewed as threatening,” said Assistant Attorney-General for National Security John A. Eisenberg.
Prosecutors say Sun and his PRC bosses sought to turn Wang into a political star in the hopes that she would achieve high office and further China’s goals in California.
Wang in 2024 told the Los Angeles Times that she had relocated to Southern California from China three decades earlier.
She said mother was a doctor of Chinese medicine and acupuncture and her father was a physician in Sichuan province before he got a job working at the University of Southern California.
The PRC has attempted for years to influence US policy and governance through propaganda and espionage, prompting counterintelligence officials in 2022 to warn about China’s increasing use of overt and covert means to influence policymaking.
The US House of Representatives Ethics Committee in 2022 closed a two-year investigation into allegations that disgraced former Rep. Eric Swalwell had ties to an alleged Chinese spy named Christine Fang who volunteered on his congressional campaign.
The committee warned Swalwell “of the possibility that foreign governments may attempt to secure improper influence through gifts and other interactions,” in a letter sent at the probe’s closure.
Federal agents last month raided Lancaster City Hall and the homes of a pair of politicians from the high-desert town in an investigation of links between the two men and China-based electric-car manufacturer BYD, which is running America’s first trial of electric buses in the city.
“The concern was that the buses could be used for spying,” said a person with knowledge of the probe.
This article originally appeared on the New York Post and was reproduced with permission
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