The mayor of Arcadia, a Southern California city with a large Chinese-American population, has agreed to plead guilty to acting as an illegal agent of the Chinese government, U.S. officials announced Monday. Eileen Wang faces up to 10 years in prison.

Wang, 68, was elected to the five-person city council in November 2022 and assumed the mayoral position in February on a rotating basis. She resigned within hours of the charges being made public.

According to the plea agreement unsealed Monday, Wang and her colleague Yaoning "Mike" Sun promoted pro-China propaganda "at the direction and under the control" of Chinese government officials from late 2020 to 2022. The duo operated the news website US News Center, which served the local Chinese-American community.

The Justice Department said the site published content disputing reports of persecution, forced labor, and abuse of ethnic Uyghurs in China's Xinjiang region. Sun pleaded guilty in October 2025 and is serving a four-year prison sentence.

Wang's attorneys said in a statement that she "recognizes the seriousness of the charge and accepts responsibility for past personal mistakes," adding that her "love and devotion for the Arcadia community have not changed." Wang appeared briefly before a federal magistrate judge, and bond was set at $25,000.

Source: www.dw.com