The former mayor of the Californian city of Arcadia, Eileen Wang, pleaded guilty this Friday before a California court to acting as an illegal agent of the Chinese Government in the United States, a charge for which she faces up to 10 years in prison.
Wang, 56, who left the mayor’s office earlier this month, was charged in April with acting on U.S. soil as an illegal agent of a foreign government and today admitted to following instructions from Chinese officials by sharing articles favorable to Beijing, without prior notification to Washington as required by law.
Federal prosecutors indicate that Wang’s illegal conduct occurred between late 2020 and 2022. However, Arcadia officials and her lawyers said that conduct ended before she took office in November 2022.
In the plea agreement, she admitted to having worked “under the direction and control of officials of the Government of the People’s Republic of China” and that together with a partner—her then fiancé, Yaoning “Mike” Sun—she managed propaganda through US News Center, a website that aimed to be a news source for the Chinese-American community.
According to EFE, both “received and executed directives from officials of the Government of the People’s Republic of China to publish content in favor of China on the website,” the agreement specified.
“This plea agreement is the latest success in our determination to defend the homeland against China’s attempts to corrupt our institutions,” said the first assistant U.S. attorney, Bill Essayli.
Arcadia is located approximately 13 miles (almost 21 kilometers) northeast of Los Angeles and most of its 53,000 inhabitants are Asian, with a high concentration of Chinese residents.
The former mayor was elected in November 2022 to its City Council, a governing body composed of five people from which the highest representative position is chosen on a rotating basis.
Wang may remain free on a $25,000 bail until her sentencing, scheduled for October 6. For her charges, she faces a sentence of up to 10 years in prison and three years of probation.
