A Southern California mayor resigned from office on Monday after being charged with acting as an illegal agent of the People’s Republic of China (PRC), the Justice Department announced. Eileen Wang, 58, of Arcadia, agreed to plead guilty to a single felony count that carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in federal prison. Wang, a Democrat, was first elected to the five-member Arcadia City Council in November 2022. The city operates a rotating mayoral system among its elected council members. She has resigned from the city government and vacated her position as mayor, according to the city’s website. Arcadia has more than 54,000 residents and is located about 13 miles northeast of downtown Los Angeles in the San Gabriel Valley. Prosecutors say that between 2020 and 2022, Wang and her former fiancé and campaign manager, Yaoning “Mike” Sun, 65, of Chino Hills, acted at the direction of Chinese government officials, coordinating with U.S.-based individuals to advance Beijing’s interests by spreading pro-China propaganda in the United States. Sun pleaded guilty to acting as an illegal agent of a foreign government and is serving a four-year federal prison sentence.  Under the plea agreement, Wang admitted she never notified the authorities that she was acting in the United States as a PRC agent.   “Individuals elected to public office in the United States should act only for the people of the United States that they represent,” Assistant Attorney General for National Security John A. Eisenberg said.  “It is deeply concerning that someone who previously received and executed directives from PRC government officials is now in a position of public trust at all, but particularly so because that relationship with that foreign government had never been disclosed.” Arcadia Mayor Eileen Wang has been charged with violating 18 USC 951, acting in the United States as an illegal agent of the People’s Republic of China. Wang appeared in federal court this afternoon for her arraignment. She agreed to plead guilty and resign from public office.… pic.twitter.com/toYWJ7htvG — F.A. United States Attorney Bill Essayli (@USAttyEssayli) May 11, 2026 Wang and Sun, according to the DOJ, operated the U.S. News Center, a website that presented itself as a news source for the local Chinese American community. Prosecutors say the pair acted on orders from Chinese government officials to publish state-sponsored propaganda.  In one example cited by prosecutors, a Chinese official contacted Wang through a messaging app in June 2021 and with “prewritten news articles,” including an essay published in the Los Angeles Times claiming there was “no genocide in Xinjiang” and no “forced labor” tied to cotton production in the region.  Minutes later, prosecutors say Wang posted the article on her own website and responded to the Chinese official with a link.  “So fast, thank you, everyone,” the Beijing official responded.  “All Americans should be alarmed to learn an elected official was brazenly spreading propaganda on behalf of the Chinese government, Patrick Grandy, the Assistant Director of the FBI’s Los Angeles Field Office, said.  In November 2021, Wang communicated with an elite member of the PRC intelligence apparatus, who regularly attended Chinese Communist Party functions, including military parades, and met personally with PRC President Xi Jinping.  The charges come amid President Donald Trump’s trip to China this week. Trump is expected to arrive on Wednesday evening, and on Thursday morning, he is expected to participate in a welcome ceremony and a bilateral meeting with President Xi, The Daily Wire previously reported. On Friday, Trump will also participate in a bilateral working lunch with President Xi before heading home. “Individuals in our country who covertly do the bidding of foreign governments undermine our democracy,” First Assistant United States Attorney Bill Essayli said. “This plea agreement is the latest success in our determination to defend the homeland against China’s efforts to corrupt our institutions.”