Arcadia’s mayor, who is facing charges of being an illegal foreign agent of China, has reached a settlement agreement, according to a federal plea agreement unsealed Monday.
Eileen Wang, who was elected to the City Council in November 2022, entered into a plea agreement with prosecutors on charges that she worked under the control of the People’s Republic of China to promote propaganda in the US between 2020 and 2022, according to the unsealed lawsuit.
Wang, who pleaded guilty to all charges in a plea agreement, is scheduled to appear in court Monday afternoon in downtown Los Angeles. His attorney declined to comment. The maximum sentence for this offense is ten years in prison.
From late 2020 until at least 2022, Wang worked with Yaoning “Mike” Sun, who was his friend at the time, to run a website called the US News Center that billed itself as a news source for Chinese Americans, according to the agreement. Both Wang and Sun “used instructions” from Chinese government officials, posting requested articles and reporting with screenshots showing how many people viewed the stories, according to the unsealed settlement.
On June 10, 2021, the agreement says, Wang received a message from a government official about “China’s Position on the Xinjiang Issue.”
At the time, the Chinese government was conducting a campaign to arrest, persecute and “re-educate” Uyghurs in Xinjiang province.
“There is no genocide in Xinjiang; there is no such thing as ‘forced labor’ in any production work, including cotton production. Spreading such rumors is defaming China, destroying the security and stability of Xinjiang,” reads a message from a Chinese government official, according to the plea agreement.
Minutes after receiving the link, Wang posted the article on his website and responded to a Chinese government official with a link to the article on his website, according to the court.
“Very quickly, thank you everyone,” the official replied, court records show.
Prosecutors also said Wang edited the articles at the request of officials and shared information indicating access to the posts.
“Thank you leader,” he wrote on August 20, 2021, after being praised for a post that had been viewed more than 15,000 times, according to the plea agreement.
Wang never disclosed that the Chinese government ordered him to post the content, according to court documents.
Prosecutors charged Sun in December 2024 with conspiracy and acting as an illegal agent of a foreign government. Wang said his relationship with Sun will end in the spring of 2024.
Sun also served as campaign manager for his City Council campaign. Prosecutors accuse Sun and his Chinese government contacts of cultivating Wang in the hope that he will rise in politics and help them strengthen China’s influence in California.
“We broke up with the boyfriend,” Wang told the City Council after being indicted. “We remain friends.”
Facing calls for him to step down at the time, Wang had vowed not to leave the council, insisting that he was “not responsible for the actions of others.”
Wang said in a 2024 interview that he moved to Southern California from China 30 years ago. His mother was a Chinese medicine and acupuncturist and his father was a doctor in Sichuan province before working at USC, he said.
