California Mayor Will Plead Guilty to Working as Agent of China

Eileen Wang, the mayor of Arcadia, Calif., resigned on Monday after federal prosecutors announced they had charged her with acting as an illegal agent of the Chinese government. She will plead guilty to the charge, according to a plea deal unsealed the same day.

The felony charge comes with a potential sentence of up to 10 years in prison.

The court document outlined Ms. Wang’s efforts, beginning in late 2020 and continuing until at least the end of 2022, to operate a purported news website called U.S. News Center that circulated pro-China content at the direction of Chinese government officials. Ms. Wang covertly worked with a man in Southern California named Mike Sun, a Chinese national, to disseminate the information.

Mr. Sun, who is also known as Yaoning Sun, was sentenced in February to four years in prison for his role in the operation. He was previously engaged to Ms. Wang and had worked on her election campaign as the treasurer, according to public records. Ms. Wang, 58, was elected in November 2022 to the Arcadia City Council, and the mayor is selected from the five-person council on a rotating basis.

quote:

---

“Individuals in our country who covertly do the bidding of foreign governments undermine our democracy,” Bill Essayli, the first assistant U.S. attorney for the Central District of California, said in a statement. “This plea agreement is the latest success in our determination to defend the homeland against China’s efforts to corrupt our institutions.”

---

The Chinese government has exerted influence over local elections across the United States to advance its interests, targeting the Chinese American community in particular. In some cases, federal investigators have arrested the leaders of covert operations.

According to the plea agreement, Ms. Wang posted propaganda directed to a Chinese American audience. In one example, Ms. Wang was told through an encrypted message to publish an essay “explaining China’s stance on the Xinjiang issue — there is no genocide in Xinjiang; there is no such thing as ‘forced labor’ in any production activity, including cotton production,” the message read. “Spreading such rumor is to defame China, destroy Xinjiang’s safety and stability, weaken local economy, suppress China’s development.”

A few minutes later, Ms. Wang posted the article. Over the next couple of months, she made tweaks to the article at the direction of a Chinese government leader.

In another instance cited in the court documents, she sent a pro-China article from her site to Mr. Sun and asked him to help distribute it. In a message, she told him, “This is what the Ministry of Foreign Affairs wants to send.”

quote:

---

The Arcadia City Council will select a new mayor during its next meeting, the city manager, Dominic Lazzaretto, said in a statement. “The allegations at the center of this case — that a foreign government sought to exert influence over a local elected official — are deeply troubling,” Mr. Lazzaretto said. He added that no city finances or staff members were involved, according to an internal review.

---

California libs will probably protest and make her governor