California ex-mayor admits acting as agent of China, US authorities say

Ex-mayor of wealthy Los Angeles suburb promoted pro-China propaganda at behest of Chinese officials, prosecutors say.The former mayor of a wealthy suburb in Los Angeles, the United States, has admitted to acting as an illegal agent of China, according to authorities.Eileen Wang, the former mayor of Arcadia, agreed to plead guilty to one count of acting as an illegal agent of a foreign government from late 2020 until 2022, the US Department of Justice said on Monday.Recommended Stories list of 4 itemslist 1 of 4Syria restores credit card payments in effort to rejoin the global economylist 2 of 4Trump says he will suspend petrol tax amid soaring US fuel priceslist 3 of 4Haiti’s PM casts doubt on presidential vote by August as gang clashes growlist 4 of 4Roads blocked in Bolivia as protesters demand president’s resignationend of listWang admitted that she did not notify the US government that she was acting on behalf of China while promoting pro-Beijing propaganda, the Justice Department said.The 58-year-old operated a website called the US News Center, which published content supportive of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) while purporting to provide news for Chinese Americans, the department said.She ran the site with Yaoning Sun, a Californian man who was sentenced to four years in prison after pleading guilty to acting as an illegal agent of a foreign government in October 2025, according to US prosecutors.Wang’s activities included republishing a “PRC official-written essay” that denied allegations that the Chinese government was committing genocide against ethnic-minority Uighurs in its far-western region of Xinjiang, according to prosecutors.She resigned as mayor on Monday, according to a statement published on the City of Arcadia’s website.Wang faces a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison.Her lawyers, Brian A Sun and Jason Liang, said Wang wished to apologise for “mistakes she has made in her personal life”.“It is important to note, however, that the conduct underlying the information and the agreement with the government relates solely to Ms. Wang’s personal life – i.e., a media platform that she once operated with someone whom she believed to be her fiancé – and not to her conduct as an elected public official,” Sun and Liang said in a statement.