Eileen Wang emerged as an up-and-coming community leader in the San Gabriel Valley several years ago.<\/p>\n
She won the endorsement of prominent political figures and was elected to a seat on the Arcadia City Council<\/a>. In a 2024 interview with The Times, Wang said she moved to Southern California from China 30 years ago<\/a>. <\/p>\n Her mother was a Chinese medicine and acupuncture doctor, and her father was a physician in Sichuan province before working at USC, she said. She said she was drawn to Arcadia by the good schools for her sons and her desire to make a difference in the community.<\/p>\n This week, unsealed documents show she\u2019s been charged with acting as an illegal foreign agent of China.<\/p>\n Wang resigned from the City Council on Monday after reaching an agreement to resolve the federal case.<\/p>\n Here is a rundown of what we know:<\/p>\n What are federal prosecutors alleging?<\/p>\n From late 2020 through at least 2022, Wang worked with Yaoning \u201cMike\u201d Sun<\/a>, her former fiance, running a website called U.S. News Center that branded itself as a news source for Chinese Americans, according to the plea agreement unsealed Monday. Wang and Sun \u201cexecuted directives\u201d from Chinese government officials, posting requested articles and reporting back with screenshots showing how many people viewed the stories, the agreement says.<\/p>\n On June 10, 2021, the agreement says, Wang received a message from a government official about \u201cChina\u2019s Stance on the Xinjiang Issue,\u201d which included a link to a letter to the editor in the Los Angeles Times<\/a> from the consul general of the People\u2019s Republic of China in Los Angeles. The consul general had been responding to a Times editorial supporting a boycott of products made with cotton produced in the Xinjiang region<\/a> of China.<\/p>\n At the time, news reports were highlighting the Chinese government\u2018s campaign of incarceration, persecution and \u201creeducation\u201d<\/a> of Uyghurs in Xinjiang.<\/p>\n \u201cThere is no genocide in Xinjiang; there is no such thing as \u2018forced labor\u2019 in any production activity, including cotton production. Spreading such rumor is to defame China, destroy Xinjiang\u2019s safety and stability,\u201d read the message from the Chinese government official, according to the plea agreement.<\/p>\n Minutes after receiving the link, Wang posted the article on her website and responded to the Chinese government official with a link to the article, according to the court filing.<\/p>\n \u201cSo fast, thank you everyone,\u201d the government official responded, the court records show.<\/p>\n Prosecutors also say Wang edited articles at the request of officials and shared information showing the reach of the posts.<\/p>\n What are her attorneys saying?<\/p>\n In a statement, Wang\u2019s attorneys, Brian A. Sun and Jason Liang, said \u201cthat the conduct underlying the information and the agreement with the government relates solely to Ms. Wang\u2019s personal life \u2014 i.e., a media platform that she once operated with someone whom she believed to be her fiance \u2014 and not to her conduct as an elected public official.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cShe apologizes and is sorry for the mistakes she has made in her personal life,\u201d the statement added. \u201cHer love and devotion for the Arcadia community have not changed and did not waver. She asks for the community\u2019s understanding and continued support.\u201d<\/p>\n What about Sun?<\/p>\n