The former mayor of Arcadia resigned after admitting to acting as an illegal foreign agent of China in a federal plea deal unsealed on Monday.
Eileen Wang agreed with prosecutors that she worked with the People’s Republic of China to boost propaganda with a fake news website on US soil between 2020 and 2022. She was elected to Arcadia City Council in November 2022. The city is within LA County.
Wang pled guilty to the federal charge at her arraignment in downtown Los Angeles on Monday afternoon. She faces a maximum of 10 years in prison.
LA’s top federal prosecutor Bill Essayli said this is not the first time China has been caught trying to exert its influence in the United States.
“Ms. Wang is just the latest to act as an agent for the PRC and it should terrify Americans that she was able to rise to the highest levels of local office in her city,” Essayli said.
According to court documents, Wang worked with her then fiancé, Yaoning “Mike” Sun, on a web site called “U.S. News Center,” which claimed to be news source for Chinese Americans.
But in reality the pair were carrying out Beijing’s orders through the site, and sharing data on how many people had viewed the story with Chinese officials.
Wang and Sun “executed directives” from the Chinese government, posting propaganda designed to help China and reporting back to their masters with screenshots showing how many people viewed the stories, according to the plea agreement.
In one case, Wang’s spymaster ordered her to post a PRC-authored essay denying the existence of genocide and forced labor in the Xinjiang region, according to the document.
“There is no genocide in Xinjiang; there is no such thing as ‘forced labor’ in any production activity, including cotton production. Spreading such rumor is to defame China, destroy Xinjiang’s safety and stability,” wrote Wang’s master, according to the plea agreement.
Wang complied and her handler wrote back, “So fast, thank you everyone.”
In another case, Wang’s PRC boss commended her on page views received by a certain piece of propaganda. Wang wrote back, “Thank you leader”.
Under the terms of the plea agreement, Wang admitted that that she acted under the control of Chinese officials to promote propaganda in the U.S.
Prosecutors in 2024 charged Sun with conspiracy and acting as an illegal agent of a foreign government.
Wang said her relationship with Sun ended that year. Her ex-lover also served as campaign manager for her City Council run.
Sun in February was sentenced to four years in federal prison for acting as a covert agent of the PRC.
“For years, Sun received and executed taskings from Chinese government officials, distorted our public discourse by disseminating Chinese propaganda, and surveilled groups in the United States that China viewed as threatening,” said Assistant Attorney General for National Security John A. Eisenberg.
Prosecutors say Sun and his PRC bosses sought to turn Wang into a political star in the hopes that she would achieve high office and further China’s goals in California.
Wang in 2024 told the Los Angeles Times that she had relocated to Southern California from China three decades earlier.
She said mother was a doctor of Chinese medicine and acupuncture and her father was a physician in Sichuan province before he got a job working at the University of Southern California.