A Southern California mayor has agreed to plead guilty to acting as an unlawful agent for the Chinese authorities, and has resigned from her metropolis place, officers mentioned Monday.
Eileen Wang, the mayor of Arcadia, was charged in April with one rely of acting within the United States as an unlawful agent of a international authorities. She was accused of doing the bidding of Chinese officers, such as sharing articles favorable to Beijing, with out prior notification to the US authorities as required by regulation.
The 58-year-old was elected in November 2022 to a five-person metropolis council, from which the mayor is chosen on a rotating foundation.
City supervisor Dominic Lazzaretto mentioned in a information launch that no metropolis funds or employees have been concerned.
“We want to be clear: this investigation concerns individual conduct, and the charges are for conduct that ceased after Ms. Wang was sworn into office in December 2022,” he mentioned.
Federal officers mentioned she has agreed to plead guilty to the felony, which comes with a most sentence of 10 years in federal jail.
Wang’s attorneys Jason Liang and Brian Sun mentioned in an announcement that she acknowledges the seriousness of the cost and accepts accountability for “past personal mistakes.”
“She apologizes and is sorry for the mistakes she has made in her personal life,” Wang’s attorneys Jason Liang and Brian Sun mentioned in an announcement. “Her love and devotion for the Arcadia community have not changed and did not waver.”
According to her plea settlement, Wang and a colleague, Yaoning “Mike” Sun, labored on behalf of presidency officers for the People’s Republic of China from the top of 2020 to 2022 to promote their pursuits by selling pro-PRC propaganda within the U.S. Sun is serving a four-year sentence after he pleaded guilty to the identical cost final October. He was additionally listed in marketing campaign filings as the treasurer for Wang’s 2022 election marketing campaign.
Wang and Sun operated the information web site U.S. News Center, aimed on the Chinese American neighborhood, and have been instructed by Chinese authorities officers to submit pro-PRC content material on it.
In one occasion in June 2021, a authorities official despatched Wang a hyperlink to a letter to the editor revealed within the Los Angeles Times written by the the consul basic of the People’s Republic of China in Los Angeles.
The piece refuted stories of the persecution, pressured labor, and abuse of Uyghers in China’s Xinjiang province, stating, “There has never been genocide in Xinjiang or forced labor in the region’s cotton fields or any other sector.”
Within minutes, Wang shared the hyperlink on her information website.
The US and a number of other different international locations have declared that Beijing’s insurance policies in opposition to the Uyghurs amounted to genocide and crimes in opposition to humanity.
At the time, Wang was engaged to Sun, her attorneys mentioned. She has mentioned that relationship led to spring 2024. Their assertion references “her trust and love for apparently the wrong person who ultimately led her astray.”
Wang has additionally communicated with John Chen, who additionally pleaded guilty to being an agent for the Chinese government and was sentenced to 20 months in jail.
Wang was anticipated to seem in federal court docket Monday afternoon in downtown Los Angeles and plead guilty within the coming weeks.
Arcadia is positioned about 13 miles (21 kilometers) northeast of Los Angeles. The metropolis of about 53,000 is majority Asian and has a excessive focus of Chinese residents.