- Eileen Wang, the Mayor of Arcadia, California, has resigned from her position after agreeing to plead guilty to acting as an illegal agent for the Chinese government.
- Federal prosecutors charged Wang with promoting pro-Beijing propaganda and sharing content favorable to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) without disclosing her ties to the foreign government.
- The 58-year-old faces a maximum sentence of 10 years in federal prison for the felony charge, which involves conduct that took place primarily between 2020 and 2022.
The city of Arcadia announced the immediate resignation of Mayor Eileen Wang on Monday following her agreement to plead guilty in federal court.
Eko Hot Blog reports that Wang was accused of working on behalf of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) to disseminate propaganda through a Chinese-language news website she operated alongside a colleague.
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According to federal investigators, Wang followed specific instructions from Chinese officials to post articles that refuted international reports of genocide and forced labor in China’s Xinjiang province.
In one documented instance from June 2021, Wang reportedly shared a link to a letter written by the Chinese consul general in Los Angeles just minutes after receiving it from a government official.
The shared content denied human rights abuses against Uyghurs, a stance that directly contradicts the official findings of the United States government and several other international bodies.
Wang’s legal team released a statement acknowledging the seriousness of the charges and expressing her regret for “past personal mistakes.”
Her attorneys suggested that her actions were influenced by her relationship with Mike Sun, her former campaign treasurer and fiancé, who is already serving a four-year prison sentence for similar offenses.
Arcadia City Manager Dominic Lazzaretto clarified that the investigation was focused solely on Wang’s individual conduct and did not involve city finances or personnel.
He noted that the illegal activities ceased after she was sworn into office in December 2022. Wang is scheduled to appear in a Los Angeles federal court in the coming weeks to finalize her plea.
