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Arcadia's Mayor Pleads Guilty To Working For Beijing
Eileen Wang, the mayor of Arcadia, California, has agreed to plead guilty to acting as an illegal agent of the Chinese government, after running a fake news website that published pro-Beijing propaganda at the direct instruction of Chinese Communist Party officials.
Eileen Wang, former mayor of Arcadia, California, who is accused of acting as an illegal agent of the Chinese government, has agreed to plead guilty. (City of Arcadia - City Hall Facebook)
She won her seat on the Arcadia City Council in November 2022. What her constituents did not know was that she had already spent two years taking orders from Beijing.
Eileen Wang, 58, mayor of Arcadia, California, has been charged in federal court with acting as an illegal agent of the People's Republic of China. She has agreed to plead guilty.
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A sitting American mayor. A Chinese government operative. The same person.
The charge carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison.
Here is what she was actually doing while running for office.
From late 2020 through 2022, Wang worked at the direction and control of PRC government officials to promote pro-China propaganda inside the United States. She and a co-conspirator named Yaoning Sun operated a website called U.S. News Center, which presented itself as a legitimate news source for the local Chinese American community.
It was not a news source. It was a propaganda outlet with an American address.
In June 2021, a PRC official sent Wang pre-written articles through WeChat, including an essay denying the existence of forced labor and genocide in Xinjiang. Wang posted the article on her website within minutes and sent the official a link. The official responded: "So fast, thank you everyone."
She was not reporting the news. She was publishing what Beijing wrote and reporting back to confirm it was live.
In August 2021, after Wang and others posted links to the same article across their websites, the PRC official thanked them for their reporting. Wang then made edits to an article at the official's request, sent a confirmation link and provided a screenshot showing the article had been viewed 15,128 times. The official responded "Great!" Wang replied "Thank you leader."
Thank you leader. In writing. To a Chinese Communist Party official. While living in California and preparing to run for city council.
If you have followed this far, here is where the network gets bigger.
In November 2021, Wang communicated with John Chen, a high-level member of the PRC intelligence apparatus who regularly attended elite Chinese Communist Party functions, including military parades, and had met personally with President Xi Jinping. Wang asked Chen to post an article from her website and wrote: "This is what the Ministry of Foreign Affairs wants to send."
She was coordinating directly with someone who had a personal relationship with Xi Jinping. From Arcadia, California. On WeChat.
Chen was sentenced in November 2024 to 20 months in federal prison after pleading guilty to acting as an illegal agent of the PRC and conspiracy to bribe a public official. Sun, Wang's co-conspirator in running the fake news website, is currently serving a four-year federal prison sentence after pleading guilty in October 2025.
Wang is the third arrest connected to this network. She is the highest profile.
The FBI's Assistant Director for Counterintelligence said Wang secretly served the interests of the Chinese government and called the case a clear warning to anyone acting on behalf of foreign governments to influence American democracy.
The Assistant Attorney General for National Security put it more directly. He said it is deeply concerning that someone who received and executed directives from PRC government officials is now in a position of public trust, particularly because that relationship was never disclosed.
That last part is worth sitting with.
Wang was not just a covert operative. She ran for office and won. The people of Arcadia voted for her without knowing she had spent years answering to Beijing. She sat on a five-person city council. The mayor's role rotates among members.
She became mayor of an American city while owing her loyalty to a foreign government.
The guilty plea is coming. The sentence will follow. The question that does not get answered in a courtroom is how many others like her are still sitting in positions of public trust that nobody has found yet.
Editor's Note: The case of Eileen Wang is one of the most striking examples of Chinese government influence operations penetrating American local politics. As the Justice Department continues pursuing foreign agent cases, this guilty plea is a reminder that the targets of these operations are not always in Washington. Sometimes they are in city hall.
