US: LA area mayor to plead guilty to acting as Chinese agent

A mayor of a city in Southern California has agreed to plead guilty to a charge of acting as a foreign agent of the Chinese government, US officials said on Monday.

Eileen Wang, the mayor of Arcadia, was charged in April to a single felony count of acting in the United States as an illegal agent of a foreign government, the US Attorney's Office in the Central District of California said on Monday.

The charge carries a maximum term of 10 years in prison in the US.

A19-page plea deal was unsealed ​with the charging document on Monday.

Wang resigned as mayor within hours of her case being made public, Arcadia City Council's website showed.

She was elected to a five-person city council in November 2022 and assumed the position of mayor in February, on a rotating basis.

Arcadia is a heavily Chinese-American suburb, situated just north of Los Angeles. The city is home to some 53,000 residents.

What has Wang admitted to?

According to her plea agreement, Wang and a colleague, Yaoning "Mike" Sun, promoted propaganda favorable to China "at the direction ‌and ​control" of Chinese government officials from late 2020 to 2022.

The duo operated the news website US News Center — which served the local Chinese-American community — and promoted pro-Chinese propaganda through it, according to the Justice Department.

"Wang and Sun received and executed directives from [Chinese] government officials to post [pro-Chinese] content on the website," the department said.

According to the court filing, the pro-China content published on the site included articles disputing reports of the persecution, forced labor, and abuse of ethnic Uyghurs in China's Xinjiang ⁠region.

Sun pleaded guilty in October 2025 to the same charge as Wang and is serving a four-year prison sentence.

Wang had once publicly described Sun as her fiance.

The 68-year-old was also listed in campaign filings as the treasurer for Wang's 2022 election campaign.

Chinese spies in the US

Prosecutors have also alleged that Wang communicated with a ⁠Chinese Communist Party figure named John Chen, who had also pleaded guilty to being an agent for the Chinese government and was sentenced to 20 months in prison in 2024.

In that same year, Wang Shujun, a Chinese-American academic, was convicted of acting as a China’s foreign agent. Prosecutors proved he shared sensitive information with Beijing's Ministry of State Security (MSS).

A US national of Chinese origin was also accused of spying on Chinese dissidents for the MSS. He had taken part in China's 1989 pro-democracy movement and was later granted US asylum.

What will happen to Eileen Wang?

On Monday, Wang's attorneys Jason Liang and Brian Sun said in a statement that she recognizes the seriousness of the charge and accepts responsibility for "past personal mistakes."

 "She apologizes and is sorry for the mistakes she has made in her personal life," they said. "Her love and devotion for the Arcadia community have not changed and did not waver."

Wang made a brief appearance before a federal magistrate judge. The attorneys were told to agree to a date for a future hearing during which Wang will formally enter ​her plea. A Bond was set at $25,000 (about €21,260).

A different US-China summit

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Edited by: Rana Taha