Arcadia mayor to plead guilty to acting as illegal China agent

A Los Angeles-area mayor has agreed to plead guilty to acting as an illegal agent of China, then resigned from the Arcadia City Council, putting a sharper spotlight on how foreign influence can move through local government with limited scrutiny.

Federal prosecutors said Eileen Wang, 58, of Arcadia, was charged by information with one felony count of acting in the United States as an illegal agent of a foreign government. The charge carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in federal prison. Wang was expected to make her initial appearance Monday afternoon in U.S. District Court in downtown Los Angeles and to formally enter her plea in the coming weeks.

Wang resigned from the council on May 11, 2026, vacating the mayor’s office. Arcadia said its council will choose a new mayor and mayor pro tem at its next meeting and will also discuss how District 3 will be represented until the next election cycle in November 2026. The city’s mayor is chosen on a rotating basis by the five-member council, a structure that gives the post civic stature without the independent vetting that often surrounds county, state or federal officeholders.

Prosecutors said Wang secretly served the interests of the People’s Republic of China between late 2020 and 2022, working with her former fiancé and campaign staffer Yaoning “Mike” Sun. The two allegedly operated U.S. News Center, a Chinese-language website aimed at the local Chinese American community, and used it to publish pro-PRC material supplied by Chinese officials. Court filings described PRC officials sending prewritten articles to Wang through encrypted WeChat messages.

Among the allegations, prosecutors said Wang posted a PRC-drafted article in June 2021 about Xinjiang. In August 2021, Wang and others allegedly shared similar propaganda links and received a thank-you message from a PRC official. By November 2021, prosecutors said, Wang was coordinating propaganda articles with John Chen, whom they identified as a high-level PRC intelligence figure.

The case underscores a recurring vulnerability in local governance: small councils, rotating leadership and community-language media can create ready-made access points for foreign actors who want proximity to officials and influence over public messaging. Wang was elected to the Arcadia City Council in November 2022, and federal officials said she never disclosed the foreign-directed activity while in office.

The prosecution adds to a broader Southern California pattern. Sun was sentenced to four years in federal prison in February 2026 after pleading guilty to acting as an illegal agent of a foreign government. Chen was sentenced to 20 months in federal prison in November 2024 after pleading guilty in New York to acting as an illegal agent of the PRC and conspiracy to bribe a public official.