Ex-mayor of wealthy Los Angeles suburb promoted pro-China propaganda at behest of Chinese officials, prosecutors say. Published On 12 May 202612 May 2026The former mayor of a wealthy suburb in the United States city of Los Angeles 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 itemsend 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.Wang, 58, operated a website, called the US News Center, that published content supportive of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) while purporting to provide news for Chinese Americans, the department said.Wang 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.Wang resigned as mayor on Monday, according to a statement published on the City of Arcadia’s website.She 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 operat …
