California Mayor Pleads Guilty as Chinese Agent, Exposing Pattern of Foreign Influence
Arcadia Mayor Eileen Wang pleaded guilty to acting as an illegal agent for China, revealing a documented pattern of PRC influence operations targeting California Democratic politicians.
No American mayor serves a Chinese city. Yet a California mayor pleaded guilty May 11 to carrying out orders from Beijing's government, spreading propaganda denying atrocities in Xinjiang through a website designed to look like legitimate local news. That is not coincidence. It is the latest entry in a documented pattern of California Democrats compromised by Chinese intelligence, one that federal law enforcement is now naming directly.
Arcadia Mayor Eileen Wang, 58, agreed to plead guilty to one count of acting as an illegal agent of the People's Republic of China, a felony carrying up to 10 years in federal prison. She resigned from the city council immediately upon the case being unsealed. Wang operated U.S. News Center, a website that presented itself as a local Chinese-American community news outlet while secretly taking directives from PRC officials via WeChat.
Wang posted pre-written propaganda denying Xinjiang forced labor and genocide within minutes of receiving it. One PRC official replied "So fast, thank you everyone," according to the Department of Justice plea agreement. She edited content on Chinese government instruction, reporting 15,128 views, and responded "Thank you leader" when the official said "Great!" Wang communicated with PRC intelligence operative John Chen, who personally met Xi Jinping, writing "This is what the Ministry of Foreign Affairs wants to send."
Her case fits a documented pattern. California officials connected to Chinese intelligence operatives share a common thread: none were registered under FARA, and federal authorities confirmed the connections only after the fact. The list includes Sen. Dianne Feinstein's driver who served for 20 years and reported to the MSS, with the FBI alerting Feinstein in 2013. It includes Rep. Eric Swalwell's relationship with suspected MSS operative Christine "Fang Fang," who bundled campaign donations, placed an intern in his congressional office, and cultivated him socially before fleeing the U.S. in 2015 as an FBI counterintelligence investigation closed in.
The list also includes John Chen, sentenced to 20 months in November 2024 for acting as an illegal PRC agent and conspiracy to bribe a public official. Yaoning "Mike" Sun, Wang's former fiancé and campaign treasurer, received four years in federal prison in February 2026. In every case, the relationship was not registered under FARA. In every case, the intelligence community confirmed the CCP connection after the fact.
This pattern aligns with a 2022 National Counterintelligence and Security Center bulletin stating that China "understands that U.S. state and local leaders enjoy a degree of independence from Washington and may seek to use them as proxies to advocate for national U.S. policies Beijing desires." The Wang-Sun operation exemplifies this proxy strategy.
Wang raised $119,000 for her 2022 campaign. James Su, president of EDI Media — a media company that registered as a foreign agent under FARA in May 2022 because it formerly printed the U.S. version of a newspaper considered a "foreign mission" of the Chinese government — donated $500 from his personal funds to Wang's campaign. Sing Tao US, a subsidiary of a Chinese-owned newspaper also registered as a foreign agent, gave $3,300. Wang paid Sing Tao the same amount for print ads. The infrastructure of influence was in place before she took office.
Federal officials framed the case as part of a broader counterintelligence effort. "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 John A. Eisenberg. "It is deeply concerning that someone who previously received and executed directives from PRC government officials is now in a position of public trust at all, but particularly so because that relationship with that foreign government had never been disclosed."
First Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli stated, "Individuals in our country who covertly do the bidding of foreign governments undermine our democracy. This plea agreement is the latest success in our determination to defend the homeland against China's efforts to corrupt our institutions." FBI Assistant Director Roman Rozhavsky added, "By her own admission, Eileen Wang secretly served the interests of the Chinese government. 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."
FBI Director Kash Patel reportedly is ordering agents to compile and release files related to the Swalwell-Fang case. The House Ethics Committee investigated Swalwell and Fang for two years and took no action in 2023, showing both enforcement action and institutional failure.
Wang's attorneys stated her conduct "relates solely to Ms. Wang's personal life." The plea agreement directly contradicts this framing. It documents Wang communicating directly with PRC officials, editing content at their direction, reporting metrics, and writing "Thank you leader." Sun — her former fiancé and campaign treasurer — surveilled Taiwan's president during her April 2023 visit to Southern California and drafted a report requesting $80,000 for a pro-China demonstration at the 4th of July parade in Washington, D.C.
The plea agreement unsealed May 11 as President Trump prepares to head to Beijing for high-stakes talks with President Xi. "I think there is no coincidence to the timing of that," said former prosecutor Lou Shapiro. "I think he's trying to use this as an opportunity to show them that, 'We are onto you.' And that, 'You may think you're getting something over on us, but we're not going to let that happen. People will be held accountable.'"
Assistant U.S. Attorney Amanda B. Elbogen described the website's deception. "The website that we're talking about looked like a standard news website that got a lot of traffic in the community," she said. "If you signed on, it looked kind of like the CNN website does, with lots of different, just regular news updates. Peppered in with the regular news were these items of propaganda."
This is not a story about one bad actor. It is a story about a systematic vulnerability in California's political landscape that federal prosecutors are finally confronting head-on. The enforcement is real, the timing is deliberate, and the pattern is laid bare.