A California mayor is accused of serving as a Chinese illegal agent.

Federal prosecutors said on Monday that the mayor of a California community will enter a guilty plea after being accused of operating a website that disseminated propaganda at the behest of Chinese officials and working as an illegal unregistered agent for China.

Federal prosecutors announced on Monday that Eileen Wang, the mayor of Arcadia, a community in Los Angeles County with a population of more than 50,000, was accused of operating as an unauthorized agent of the People's Republic of China.

Federal prosecutors claim that between 2020 and 2022, Wang ran a news website with Yaoning "Mike" Sun, who is presently serving a four-year jail sentence for the same accusations. The website published content that was ordered by Chinese government officials. 

The allegations come with a possible prison sentence of 10 years, and Wang is expected to plead guilty.

In a statement to the people of the California city on Monday, Arcadia City Manager Dominic Lazzaretto announced that Wang, who was first elected to the Arcadia City Council in 2022, had resigned and vacated her post.

According to Lazzaretto, an internal investigation by the city revealed that Wang's alleged misconduct had nothing to do with "finances, staff, or decision-making processes."
A magistrate judge in Los Angeles set her bond at $25,000 and ordered her to surrender her passports, the Los Angeles Times reported, while her counsel claimed she “apologizes and is sorry for the mistakes she has made in her personal life.”

Wang and Sun allegedly collaborated to manage the Chinese-American news website "U.S. News Center," according to the prosecution. Prosecutors claim that this website disseminated "pre-written news articles" and pro-China propaganda from encrypted messaging platforms like WeChat, which were coordinated by Chinese government officers. For instance, according to the prosecution, Wang arranged for the Los Angeles Times to print a letter to the editor from China's consul general in Los Angeles that minimized China's treatment of its Uyghur community in Xinjiang. Additionally, they claim that she spoke with John Chen, who also entered a guilty plea in 2024 in the Southern District of New York to acting as an unauthorized agent of China and attempting to bribe an IRS agent. Chen received a 20-month prison sentence.