California city mayor pleads guilty of being Chinese agent; quits post

WASHINGTON: The mayor of Californian city of Arcadia has agreed to plead guilty for acting as an illegal agent of China, the US Department of Justice said.

Eileen Wang has resigned as Arcadia mayor and is expected to plead guilty in the federal court in Los Angeles in the coming weeks.

Wang, 58, along with her then-fiance Yaoning 'Mike' Sun have been charged with promoting pro-China propaganda in the US at the behest of the Chinese government officials, federal prosecutors announced on Monday.

The 65-year-old Sun is serving a four-year jail term after he pleaded guilty in a federal court in October last year.

In a related filing, Wang has agreed to plead guilty to the felony count, which comes with a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison.

Wang was elected in November 2022 to the Arcadia City Council, a five-person governing body from which the mayor is selected on a rotating basis.

"Individuals in our country who covertly do the bidding of foreign governments undermine our democracy," said First Assistant US Attorney Bill Essayli for the Central District of California.

"This plea agreement is the latest success in our determination to defend the homeland against China's efforts to corrupt our institutions," Essayli said in a statement.

"By her own admission, Eileen Wang secretly served the interests of the Chinese government," said assistant director Roman Rozhavsky of the FBI's Counterintelligence and Espionage Division.

"Let this serve as a clear warning: individuals who act on behalf of foreign governments to influence our democracy will be identified, investigated, and brought to justice,". Rozhavsky said.

"Individuals elected to public office in the United States should act only for the people of the United States that they represent," said assistant attorney general for National Security John A. Eisenberg.

According to her plea agreement, from late 2020 through 2022, Wang and Sun worked at the direction and control of Chinese government officials to promote Beijing's interests by, among other things, promoting pro-PRC propaganda in the United States.

Wang and Sun operated US News Center, a website that purported to be a news source for the local Chinese American community.

The duo received and executed directives from Chinese government officials to post pro-China content on the website.

Wang admitted in her plea agreement that she did not notify the Attorney General that she was acting in the United States as an agent of China.

She also did not disclose on her website that some of its content had been posted at the direction of members of the Chinese government.