Two convicted Chinese spies helped Arcadia’s former mayor become a successful SoCal politician — who secretly took orders from Beijing.
Yaoning “Mike” Sun and John Chen helped Eileen Wang win office and secretly reported back to their masters in the People’s Republic of China, according to court documents.
Sun took orders from Chen as he served as the campaign manager and business partner of Wang in her successful 2022 run for Arcadia City Council.
When Wang won her seat, Chen told Sun to send a report to their PRC masters calling Wang a “new political star.”
Wang would “go against Taiwanese independence” and “report to China,” Chen reported to his PRC spymaster.
The Chinese official responded: “That’s great!”
Chen told Sun to make a list of politicians that Wang was friendly with, adding: “the more the better, the higher position the better.”
He also bragged to Beijing about they could turn local U.S. politicians against Taiwanese independence, according to the documents.
The mayor of Arcadia is selected from the Council on a rolling basis.
Chen was sentenced in 2024 to 20 months in prison for acting as an unregistered agent of the People’s Republic of China and bribing an Internal Revenue Service agent.
While in custody, Chen told his cellmate that he was a Chinese spy and his agency is “100 times better than the FBI,” court documents say.
Sun, who was also Wang’s lover and fiancé, was charged in 2024 with conspiracy and acting as an illegal agent of a foreign government.
Wang dumped him, saying “We broke up the fiancé relationship — we keep the friendship.”
Sun pled guilty to his charges and in February was sentenced to 40 months in federal prison.
Wang resigned her job as mayor and pled guilty Monday to the charge of acting as an illegal agent for a foreign government. She faces up to 10 years in federal prison.
