Arcadia Mayor Resigns After Agreeing to Plead Guilty to Acting As Illegal Agent for China
The mayor of a Southern California city has stepped down after federal prosecutors announced she agreed to plead guilty to acting as an illegal agent of the Chinese government.
Eileen Wang, 58, who had served as mayor of Arcadia since February, agreed to plead guilty to one count of acting as an illegal agent of a foreign government in the United States after admitting that she worked with another man to advance messaging favorable to the People’s Republic of China, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California said in a May 11 news release.
Arcadia is located about 15 miles northeast of downtown Los Angeles. The city has roughly 54,000 residents, and about 59% of its population is Asian American, according to the U.S. Census.
Arcadia City Council stated that Wang resigned from her post on Monday. She is expected to formally enter the plea in the coming weeks, prosecutors said. The charge carries a maximum possible sentence of 10 years in federal prison.
Wang’s attorneys, Jason Liang and Brian Sun, said in a statement that Wang accepts responsibility for “past personal mistakes.”
“Her love and devotion for the Arcadia community have not changed and did not waver,” they added.
“This plea agreement is the latest success in our determination to defend the homeland against China’s efforts to corrupt our institutions,” First Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli said.
“Individuals in our country who covertly do the bidding of foreign governments undermine our democracy.”
Wang’s alleged conduct occurred before she took office in Arcadia, according to city officials. She was sworn in to the City Council in December 2022 and became mayor earlier this year. Arcadia’s mayor is chosen from the five-member City Council on a rotating basis, allowing each council member to serve about 9.5 months during their 4-year term.
Arcadia City Manager Dominic Lazzaretto said in a statement that the City Council will choose a new mayor at its next meeting.
“The allegations at the center of this case, that a foreign government sought to exert influence over a local elected official, are deeply troubling. We take them seriously,” Lazzaretto said.
“We want to be clear: this investigation concerns individual conduct, and the charges are for conduct that ceased after Ms. Wang was sworn into office in December 2022. Following an internal review, we can confirm that no City finances, staff, or decision-making processes were involved.”
City Council actions are taken by the body as a whole, and “no single member holds unilateral authority,” Lazzaretto added. “We have found no actions that require reconsideration or that are invalidated as a result of these developments.”
Federal prosecutors said Wang worked with Yaoning “Mike” Sun, 65, of Chino Hills, to promote Chinese government propaganda in the U.S. Sun is currently serving a four-year prison sentence after pleading guilty in October 2025 to the same foreign-agent charge.
Between late 2020 and 2022, Wang and Sun operated U.S. News Center, a website that appeared to be aimed at the region’s Chinese American community. The two posted pro-China content on the website at the direction of Chinese government operatives.
One example cited by prosecutors involved a June 2021 message from a Chinese government official to Wang and others in a group chat. The official allegedly sent pre-written articles, including one that had been published in the Los Angeles Times as a letter to the editor rejecting allegations of forced labor and genocide in China’s Xinjiang region.
Wang later posted the same article to her website.
Two months later, in August 2021, Wang allegedly revised the article after the Chinese official requested changes. Prosecutors stated she then sent the official a link to the post and a screenshot showing it had received more than 15,000 views.
The official responded, “Great!” according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office. Wang replied, “Thank you, leader.”
“Individuals elected to public office in the United States should act only for the people of the United States that they represent,” Assistant Attorney General for National Security John A. Eisenberg said.
“It is deeply concerning that someone who previously received and executed directives from PRC government officials is now in a position of public trust at all, but particularly so because that relationship with that foreign government had never been disclosed.”
Prosecutors also described Wang’s connection to another man, John Chen, who was sentenced to 20 months in prison for acting as an unregistered agent and bribing an Internal Revenue Service agent.
Sun, meanwhile, had previously coordinated with Chinese officials on several efforts, including organizing support for a political candidate he described to Beijing as a “new political star.” The Los Angeles Times identified that candidate as Wang.
Sun served as Wang’s city council campaign adviser and was described by prosecutors as a “close personal confidante.” After Wang won election to the council, she and Sun attended a meeting with people Sun described as a team “dedicated” to Chinese interests, according to Sun’s plea agreement.
Moumita Basuroychowdhury is a Contributing Reporter at The National Digest. After earning an economics degree at Cornell University, she moved to NYC to pursue her MFA in creative writing. She enjoys reporting on science, business and culture news. You can reach her at moumita.b@thenationaldigest.com.