Updated May 12, 2026, 12:50 p.m. ET
A Southern California mayor has been charged with operating as an illegal foreign agent on behalf of the Chinese government and resigned from her post, authorities announced.
Eileen Wang, 58, who has been mayor of the Los Angeles County suburb of Arcadia since February, agreed to plead guilty to one count of acting in the United States as an illegal agent of a foreign government, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California said in a news release on May 11.
In a plea agreement, Wang admitted to working with another man from Chino Hills, 65-year-old Yaoning “Mike” Sun, to promote “propaganda” favorable to the People’s Republic of China within the United States, according to the release. Sun is serving four years in prison after pleading guilty to the same charge in October 2025.
“Individuals in our country who covertly do the bidding of foreign governments undermine our democracy,” First Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli said.
Between late 2020 and 2022, the two operated a website called U.S. News Site, which purported to serve the area’s Chinese American community, prosecutors said. Wang and Sun posted content favorable to the Chinese government on the site, at the direction of government operatives, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
In June 2021, a Chinese government official used a messaging platform to contact Wang and others in a group chat with prewritten articles, including one published in the Los Angeles Times as a letter to the editor rejecting claims of genocide in the Xinjiang region. Wang posted the same article to her website, prosecutors said.
In August 2021, Wang made edits to the article at the request of the Chinese official and sent a link along with a screenshot showing it had been viewed more than 15,000 times. The official said in a message, “Great!” and Wang replied, “Thank you leader,” the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.
Another man Wang communicated with, John Chen, was also sentenced to 20 months in prison for acting as an unregistered agent and bribing an IRS agent, prosecutors said.
“Individuals elected to public office in the United States should act only for the people of the United States that they represent,” Assistant Attorney General for National Security John A. Eisenberg said. “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.”
Arcadia’s manager, Dominic Lazzaretto, said in a statement that Wang resigned and the city will select a new mayor at its next City Council meeting. Wang was sworn in to the City Council in December 2022. The mayor is selected on a rotating basis from the five-person body, allowing each member to serve as mayor for a nine-and-a-half-month period during their four-year term on the council.
Arcadia, about 15 miles northeast of downtown LA, is a city of about 54,000 residents with a population that is about 59% Asian American, according to the U.S. Census.
“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. Following an internal review, we can confirm that no City finances, staff, or decision-making processes were involved,” Lazzaretto said.
City Council actions are taken by the body as a whole and “no single member holds unilateral authority,” Lazzaretto said. “We have found no actions that require reconsideration or that are invalidated as a result of these developments,” he said.
Sun, the Chino Hills man, coordinated with Chinese officials to, among other things, orchestrate a group to help push a candidate he described to Beijing as a “new political star.” The Los Angeles Times identified the candidate as Wang. Sun served as the candidate’s city council campaign adviser and “close personal confidante,” prosecutors previously said. After her election, they attended a meeting of people Sun described as a team “dedicated” to Chinese interests, according to his plea agreement.
Wang is expected to plead guilty in the coming weeks, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said. She could face up to 10 years in federal prison. It was not clear if Wang had an attorney who could comment on her behalf.
Contributing: Marc Ramirez
