A woman who served as mayor of a California city has been charged with acting as an illegal agent of the Chinese government, the US Department of Justice said on Monday.
Eileen Wang, 58, who was the mayor of Arcadia, a city located north of Los Angeles with a population of around 50,000, has agreed to plead guilty to the felony charge, according to a Justice Department statement.
Wang resigned as mayor on Monday, as per information posted on the Arcadia City Council’s website.
In the United States, acting as an illegal agent of a foreign government carries a maximum prison sentence of 10 years.
According to the Justice Department, Wang and her accomplice, Yaoning Sun, promoted pro-China propaganda through a website they operated called US News Center, which served the local Chinese-American community.
The department said Wang and Sun received and followed instructions from Chinese government officials to post pro-China content on the website.
Sun had already pleaded guilty in 2025 to acting as an illegal agent of a foreign government and is currently serving a four-year prison sentence.
The development comes as US President Donald Trump is scheduled to visit Beijing this week and meet Chinese President Xi Jinping.
