California mayor steps down, agrees to plead guilty to acting as illegal Chinese government agent

Eileen Wang, who resigned May 11 as mayor of Arcadia, California, has agreed to plead guilty to acting as an illegal agent of the Chinese government, according to a May 11 Department of Justice (DOJ) press release.

Wang, 58, was charged with one felony count of acting in the U.S. as an agent of a foreign government without notifying the U.S. attorney general. She faces up to 10 years in federal prison and a fine of up to $250,000. A federal judge will determine her sentence.

Wang resigned from the Arcadia City Council and as mayor after the charge was announced. Arcadia, located in Los Angeles County, selects its mayor from among the five members of its city council.

According to the plea agreement cited by the DOJ, Wang admitted that from late 2020 through 2022 — before she was elected to the Arcadia City Council in November 2022 — she acted “at the direction and control” of Chinese government officials. 

Assistant Attorney General for National Security John Eisenberg said in the release that public officials should serve the interests of the American people and disclose relationships with foreign governments.

 “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,” he said.

Prosecutors said Wang and an associate, Yaoning “Mike” Sun, operated U.S. News Center, a website that purported to serve the local Chinese American community but was used to publish pro-Beijing propaganda on topics including China’s policies in Xinjiang. Sun pleaded guilty in October 2025 to acting as an illegal agent of a foreign government and is serving a four-year federal prison sentence. 

According to the DOJ, Wang and Sun received directives from Chinese government officials through encrypted WeChat messages and posted pro-PRC content on the website. In one June 2021 exchange detailed by prosecutors, a Chinese government official sent Wang and others pre-written material denying allegations of forced labor and genocide in Xinjiang. Prosecutors said Wang posted the article on her website minutes later and sent the link back to the official, who responded, “So fast, thank you everyone.”

Prosecutors also alleged Wang communicated with John Chen, whom the DOJ described as a high-level member of China’s intelligence apparatus who regularly attended Chinese Communist Party functions and met personally with Chinese leader Xi Jinping. Wang allegedly asked Chen to post a “news” article and wrote, “This is what the Ministry of Foreign Affairs wants to send.”

Chen was sentenced to 20 months in federal prison in November 2024 after pleading guilty in the Southern District of New York to acting as an unregistered Chinese government agent and conspiracy to bribe a public official, the DOJ reported.

FBI Director Kash Patel commented on Wang’s case on X, saying the FBI and “our federal partners continue to move aggressively to root out this kind of influence in American institutions all over the country.”