Eileen Wang, the mayor of Arcadia, Calif., resigned on Monday after federal prosecutors announced they had charged her with acting as an illegal agent of the Chinese government. She will plead guilty to the charge, according to a plea deal unsealed the same day.<\/p>\n
The felony charge comes with a potential sentence of up to 10 years in prison.<\/p>\n
The court document outlined Ms. Wang\u2019s efforts, beginning in late 2020 and continuing until at least the end of 2022, to operate a purported news website called U.S. News Center that circulated pro-China content at the direction of Chinese government officials. Ms. Wang covertly worked with a man in Southern California named Mike Sun, a Chinese national, to disseminate the information.<\/p>\n
Mr. Sun, who is also known as Yaoning Sun, was sentenced in February<\/a> to four years in prison for his role in the operation. He was previously engaged to Ms. Wang and had worked on her election campaign as the treasurer, according to public records. Ms. Wang, 58, was elected in November 2022 to the Arcadia City Council, and the mayor is selected from the five-person council on a rotating basis.<\/p>\n \u201cIndividuals in our country who covertly do the bidding of foreign governments undermine our democracy,\u201d Bill Essayli, the first assistant U.S. attorney for the Central District of California, said in a statement<\/a>. \u201cThis plea agreement is the latest success in our determination to defend the homeland against China\u2019s efforts to corrupt our institutions.\u201d<\/p>\n