LA County Mayor Resigns After Being Charged As A Covert Agent For China

LOS ANGELES, CA — The mayor of Arcadia will plead guilty to a federal charge of secretly working to promote the interests of China and spread Chinese Communist Party propaganda, according to federal prosecutors.

Eileen Wang, 58, of Arcadia entered into an agreement to plead guilty to one felony count of acting as an illegal agent of a foreign government, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.

Wang was elected to the Arcadia City Council in 2022 with the help of her then-fiance, Yaoning "Mike" Sun — who is serving a four-year prison sentence after pleading guilty to doing China's bidding in a related case. Wang is the city's most recent mayor, a position rotated among council members on an annual basis.

Wang resigned from the council on Monday, according to city officials.

In her plea agreement, Wang admitted to working to promote China's interest in the U.S. between 2020 and 2022 in conjunction with Sun. At the direction of Chinese government officials, Sun led an effort to get Wang elected to the council, according to prosecutors.

Wang and Sun operated the news website U.S. News Center, aimed at the Chinese American community, and were instructed by Chinese government officials to post pro-People's Republic of China (PRC) content on it.

In one instance in June 2021, a government official sent Wang a link to a letter to the editor published in the Los Angeles Times written by the the consul general of the People’s Republic of China in Los Angeles.

The piece refuted reports of the persecution, forced labor, and abuse of Uyghers in China's Xinjiang province, stating, “There has never been genocide in Xinjiang or forced labor in the region’s cotton fields or any other sector.”

Within minutes, Wang shared the link on her news site.

The U.S. and several other countries have declared that Beijing’s policies against the Uyghurs amounted to genocide and crimes against humanity.

In November of that year, Wang communicated with John Chen, described by prosecutors as a high-level member of the PRC intelligence apparatus. He asked her to post an article on the website, writing that “this is what the Ministry of Foreign Affairs wants to send.”

Chen was sentenced in November 2024 to 20 months in federal prison to acting as an illegal agent of the PRC and conspiracy to bribe a public official, according to prosecutors.

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,” Wang's attorneys Jason Liang and Brian Sun said in a statement. “Her love and devotion for the Arcadia community have not changed and did not waver.”

City manager Dominic Lazzaretto said in a news release that no city finances or staff were involved.

“We want to be clear: this investigation concerns individual conduct, and the charges are for conduct that ceased after Ms. Wang was sworn into office in December 2022,” he said.

At its next meeting, the Arcadia City Council will select a mayor and mayor pro tem from among the remaining council members, and will begin discussing how Arcadia's District 3 will be represented until the next election cycle in November, according to Deputy City Manager Justine Bruno.

Wang faces a maximum sentence of 10 years in federal prison. She's expected to enter her guilty plea in the coming weeks.

Located east of Pasadena in the San Gabriel Valley, Arcadia was described as the "Chinese Beverly Hills" by LAist, which reported that the city is a popular place for affluent Chinese immigrants.

Material from City News Service and the Associated Press was used in this report.