Arcadia Mayor Eileen Wang Resigns After DOJ Charges Her With Acting for China

Arcadia Mayor Eileen Wang resigned from the City Council on Monday, May 11, after federal authorities charged her with acting as an agent of the Chinese government.

Wang, 58, is charged with one count of acting in the United States as an illegal agent of a foreign government, and she agreed to plead guilty in the coming weeks to the felony count with a statutory maximum sentence of 10 years in federal prison.

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The Justice Department said Wang, along with Yaoning “Mike” Sun, 65, of Chino Hills, operated the U.S. News Center website and received and executed “directives” to post content from government officials within the People’s Republic of China.

Prosecutors said Wang and Sun worked from late 2020 through 2022 to promote pro-PRC propaganda in the United States, including by posting PRC-approved news content on the site.

Arcadia City Manager Dominic Lazzaretto said, “The allegations at the center of this case, that a foreign government sought to exert influence over a local elected official, are deeply troubling,” as the city said it would take the matter seriously.

First Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli said, “Individuals in our country who covertly do the bidding of foreign governments undermine our democracy,” as Wang’s plea agreement was unsealed on Monday.

The DOJ said Wang would post PRC-approved content on U.S. News Center and then write back to a PRC official about how many views the content was getting, with prosecutors writing that “Each time defendant posted to her website at the PRC Official's Direction.”

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In one example, prosecutors said a PRC official sent Wang pre-written news articles via encrypted WeChat messages in June 2021, and minutes later Wang posted the article on her own website and responded with a link.

The Justice Department described a later episode in which Wang made edits requested by the official and sent a screenshot showing the article had been viewed 15,128 times, after which the official messaged, “Great!,” and Wang replied, “Thank you leader.”

NBC Los Angeles reported that Wang resigned from the city council and vacated the position of mayor Monday, while Sun—who pleaded guilty in October 2025—was serving a four-year federal prison sentence.

The Justice Department said Wang has agreed to plead guilty to the felony count, which comes with a statutory maximum sentence of 10 years in federal prison, and she was expected to make her initial appearance this afternoon in United States District Court in downtown Los Angeles.

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Arcadia Deputy City Manager Justine Bruno said that after Sun was arrested in December 2024, the city conducted an internal review and determined that “no City finances, staff, or decision-making processes were impacted in any way.”

Bruno also said the charges against Wang stem from activities before her time in office, and that “No other members of the City Council are under investigation, and City services have continued without interruption.”

MyNewsLA reported that Arcadia’s deputy city manager confirmed Wang’s resignation from the council and said the investigation concerns individual conduct that ceased after she was sworn into office in December 2022.

KTLA said the city’s City Council would soon discuss replacing Wang, who represented the city’s 3rd District, until the November 2026 election.