Eileen Wang resigned Monday as mayor of Arcadia after reaching an agreement to resolve a federal case accusing her of acting as an illegal foreign agent of China. She appeared in federal court in downtown Los Angeles the same day for a brief hearing, where a judge told her lawyers to set a date for the plea she is expected to enter.
The magistrate judge ordered Wang held on a $25,000 bond and required her to surrender all passports and travel documents. The maximum sentence for the charge is 10 years in prison.
Federal prosecutors said Wang acted under the control of the People’s Republic of China to promote propaganda in the United States between 2020 and 2022. Court filings say that from late 2020 through at least 2022, she worked with Yaoning “Mike” Sun to run a website called U.S. News Center, which branded itself as a news source for Chinese Americans. Prosecutors say both of them carried out directives from Chinese government officials, posted requested articles and then sent back screenshots showing how many people had viewed the stories.
One message cited in the filings came on June 10, 2021, when Wang received an instruction from a government official about “China’s Stance on the Xinjiang Issue.” The message included a link to a letter to the editor at the Los Angeles Times from the consul general of the People’s Republic of China in Los Angeles, who was responding to a Times editorial supporting a boycott of products made with cotton produced in the Xinjiang region.
Arcadia officials have said the conduct described by federal authorities happened before Wang was elected to the City Council in November 2022. Her name was removed from the city’s list of council members after the charges were announced, and the resignation on Monday formally ends a tenure that was already stripped from the city’s public record.
The case carries a sharp political edge because it alleges influence operations reaching into a local American government. Asst. U.S. Atty. Amanda B. Elbogen asked the judge to bar Wang from communicating with the Chinese government, including consular officials in the United States, while the case moves forward. U.S. Atty. Bill Essayli said people in this country who covertly do the bidding of foreign governments undermine democracy, and called the plea deal another success in efforts to defend the homeland against China’s attempts to corrupt American institutions.
Arcadia City Manager Dominic Lazzaretto said the city understood the news would raise serious concerns and wanted to be direct with the community about what was known and where the city stood. He said the allegations that a foreign government sought to exert influence over a local elected official were deeply troubling.
Wang’s next step is procedural but consequential: her lawyers must return to court with a date for the guilty plea that will likely turn the allegation into a formal conviction path. What was once a city hall controversy is now a federal case with a plea agreement, travel restrictions and a possible prison sentence hanging over it.
