Arcadia Mayor Eileen Wang Resigns and Pleads Guilty to Acting as Agent of Chinese Government

Eileen Wang, the mayor of Arcadia, California, has resigned her position and agreed to plead guilty to one count of acting in the United States as an illegal agent of a foreign government. The 58-year-old was charged in April with the felony, which carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in federal prison.

She is expected to appear in federal court Monday afternoon in downtown Los Angeles and is expected to plead guilty in the coming weeks, according to the Department of Justice.

Wang was elected in November 2022 to a five-person Arcadia City Council. The mayor position in Arcadia is selected on a rotating basis from the five-person city council. She was sworn into office in December 2022.

City manager Dominic Lazzaretto said in a news release that no city finances or staff were involved in the case. Dominic Lazzaretto said the investigation concerns individual conduct and the charges are for conduct that ceased after Ms.

According to the Department of Justice, Eileen Wang and Yaoning “Mike” Sun worked on behalf of government officials for the People’s Republic of China from the end of 2020 to 2022. U.S.

News Center aimed at the Chinese American community. U.S. News Center. In June 2021, a Chinese government official sent Eileen Wang a link to a letter to the editor published in the Los Angeles Times written by the consul general of the People’s Republic of China in Los Angeles.

The Los Angeles Times letter refuted reports of the persecution, forced labor, and abuse of Uyghurs in China’s Xinjiang province. The letter stated there has never been genocide in Xinjiang or forced labor in the region’s cotton fields or any other sector. Within minutes of receiving the link in June 2021, Eileen Wang shared the link on her news site.

At the time, Eileen Wang was engaged to Yaoning “Mike” Sun. Yaoning “Mike” Sun is serving a four-year sentence after pleading guilty to the same charge last October. Yaoning “Mike” Sun was listed in campaign filings as the treasurer for Eileen Wang’s 2022 election campaign.

Eileen Wang communicated with John Chen, who pleaded guilty to being an agent for the Chinese government and was sentenced to 20 months in prison. The relationship between Eileen Wang and Yaoning “Mike” Sun ended in spring 2024. ” Arcadia is located about 13 miles (21 kilometers) northeast of Los Angeles.

The city has a population of about 53,000 and is majority Asian with a high concentration of Chinese residents.