According to US officials on Monday, the mayor of Arcadia, California, a predominantly Chinese-American suburb of Los Angeles, has consented to enter a guilty plea to a federal charge of operating as a foreign agent of China and disseminating propaganda on behalf of Beijing.
According to the city manager's office, Eileen Wang, 58, resigned from Arcadia's city council and the rotating mayoral position she had taken on in February within hours of the case becoming public.
She made a brief appearance before a federal magistrate judge, who gave the lawyers instructions to set a date for Wang to formally enter her plea at a later hearing. The bond amount was $25,000. A Mandarin interpreter was used to conduct the hearings on Monday.

Wang consented to enter a guilty plea to a single felony count of serving as a foreign agent of the Chinese government without prior disclosure to the US Justice Department in the 19-page plea agreement that was filed on April 1 and unsealed with the charging document on Monday.
The maximum term for this crime is ten years in federal prison."Those in our nation who secretly carry out foreign governments' orders threaten our democracy," US Attorney Bill Essayli stated when he announced the case.
In the plea deal, Wang acknowledged that from late 2020 until 2022, when she was elected to a four-year term on the Arcadia city council, she promoted pro-Chinese propaganda "at the direction and control" of Chinese government officials.

In the plea deal, Wang acknowledged that from late 2020 until 2022, when she was elected to a four-year term on the Arcadia city council, she promoted pro-Chinese propaganda "at the direction and control" of Chinese government officials.
According to the guilty deal, she specifically assisted in running a website known as the "US News Center," which was a mouthpiece for the Beijing government but pretended to be a reliable news source for the predominately ethnic Chinese local community.
The complaint claims that Wang was instructed by Chinese government officials to publish pro-China information on the website, including articles refuting allegations of human rights violations against ethnic Uyghurs in China's Xinjiang region.

"Thank you leader," Wang said in her plea deal in response to a complimenting text message from a Chinese government official praising her job.
The letter stated that Wang had collaborated closely with Yaoning "Mike" Sun, an associate who was briefly mentioned as a campaign finance adviser and whom she had previously publicly referred to as her fiancé.
After entering a guilty plea to one count of operating as an unlawful agent of a foreign government in October 2025, Sun, 65, was sentenced to four years in jail in February.
Prosecutors said that one of Wang's connections with the Beijing government was a Chinese Communist Party official named John Chen. According to court records, Chen was a senior member of China's intelligence apparatus and had direct meetings with Chinese President Xi Jinping.

Chen entered a similar guilty plea in November 2024 and was given a 20-month prison sentence.
According to a statement issued by Wang's lawyers, she "apologises and is sorry for the mistakes she has made in her personal life."
The federal indictment is based on "conduct that ceased after Ms. Wang was sworn into office in December 2022," according to a second statement from city manager Dominic Lazzaretto."No city finances, staff, or decision-making processes were involved," it stated.