Mayor of California city to plead guilty to acting as agent of China, feds say

Federal authorities said Eileen Wang admitted to serving the interests of the Chinese government via a "news" website.

The former mayor of Arcadia was expected to plead guilty after being charged with acting as an illegal agent of the People's Republic of China, the Department of Justice (DOJ) said Monday.

Eileen Wang, who was elected to the Arcadia City Council in November 2022, reached a plea deal with the federal government after she was accused of doing the bidding for the Chinese government via a "news" website.

Wang, 58, as well as Yaoning “Mike” Sun of Chino Hills, allegedly worked at the direction of the People's Republic of China and operated "U.S. News Center," a website that purposed to be a news source for the local Chinese American community between late 2020 and through 2022.

The DOJ said Wang and Sun received directives from Chinese officials to post content that's favorable to the Chinese government and spread propaganda on behalf of the People's Republic of China (PRC).

“It is deeply concerning that someone who previously received and executed directives from PRC government officials is now in a position of public trust at all, but particularly so because that relationship with that foreign government had never been disclosed," Assistant Attorney General for National Security John A. Eisenberg said.

In one incident, the pair received an essay draft from a Chinese official via the the WeChat encrypted messaging app in June 2021, being given a directive to push back against an LA Times article about Xinjiang, the Uyghur heartland in China. Within minutes, Wang and Sun published the article on their website, claiming there was no forced labor, including cotton production, in Xinjiang.

In response, the PRC official said, "So fast, thank you everyone."

Wang also published an article at the direction of the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affair in November 2021, according to the DOJ.

Wang resigned from the city council and vacated the position of mayor Monday, according to the website for the city of Arcadia.

As part of the plea agreement, Wang admitted to working for the Chinese government on U.S. soil and not notifying the U.S. government.

Wang’s lawyer released a statement on her behalf, saying in part:

“Events in Ms. Wang’s personal life – including her trust and love for apparently the wrong person who ultimately led her astray – require her to step away from public service… She apologizes and is sorry for the mistakes she has made in her personal life. Her love and devotion for the Arcadia community have not changed and did not waver.”

Sun, Wang's co-conspirator, is serving a four-year federal prison sentence after he pleaded guilty in October 2025 to acting as an illegal agent of a foreign government.

Wang was expected to plead guilty in the coming weeks after making her initial court appearance in downtown Monday. She could serve a statutory maximum sentence of 10 years in federal prison.

Chinese residents make up a big portion of Arcadia, where up 60% of its population is Asian.