Eileen Wang, the Mayor of Arcadia, California, has been charged in federal court with illegally acting in the United States as an agent of the Chinese government.

According to an announcement from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California, Wang, 58, has agreed to plead guilty to the criminal charge. Under federal law, the maximum sentence for this offense is 10 years in prison.

Plea documents reveal that from late 2020 through 2022, Wang and Yaoning “Mike” Sun—a resident of Chino Hills—operated under the direction and control of Chinese government officials to promote Beijing’s interests in the U.S., which included disseminating pro-China propaganda.

The two operated the "U.S. News Center," presented as a news website serving the Chinese-American community. However, investigation records show that Wang and Sun received direct instructions from China to publish content favorable to Beijing.

Court documents state that in June 2021, a Chinese official sent pre-written articles via the WeChat app to Wang and others, including pieces denying allegations of “genocide” and “forced labor” in Xinjiang.

Only minutes later, Wang posted the article to her website and sent the link back to the Chinese official to confirm it had been published. The official then replied:

“So fast, thank you everyone.”

In another instance in August 2021, Wang edited an article at the request of the Chinese side and sent a screenshot showing the article had received over 15,000 views. The Chinese official responded:

“Excellent!”

Wang replied:

“Thank you, leader.”

Records also indicate that Wang had been in contact with John Chen—identified as a senior member of a Chinese intelligence network who had met personally with President Xi Jinping.

In a message sent to Chen, Wang wrote:

“This is the content the Ministry of Foreign Affairs wants to send out.”

According to the U.S. Department of Justice, Wang admitted she never notified the U.S. Attorney General that she was acting as an agent of the Chinese government, nor did she disclose on the website that certain content was published at the direction of Chinese officials.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation is continuing to investigate the case.

Source: U.S. Department of Justice