The mayor of Arcadia, Elaine Wang, has agreed to plead guilty to a charge of acting as an undisclosed agent of the Chinese government, US authorities have announced.
The announcement followed Wang, 58, resigning from her post and as a member of the city council, just hours after the Justice Department revealed her involvement in propaganda activities that served Beijing inside the U.S. mainland.
Behind the scenes of the secret work and confession
According to federal court documents released by the U.S. Department of Justice on Monday , Wang admitted that she cooperated with the Chinese government between 2020 and 2022 to spread political propaganda through a fake news site inside the United States, in an attempt to influence American public opinion, especially among the Chinese-American communities.
Investigations revealed that Wang, 58, worked with her ex-fiancé Yaoning Mike Sun to run a website called "U.S. News Center," which presented itself as an independent news source, while in fact carrying out direct directives from Chinese officials.
Legal and administrative repercussions
For its part, the administration of the city of Arcadia tried to reassure the residents, as the city manager, Dominique Lazzaretto, confirmed that suspicious activities stopped before she took office, stressing that the city's decisions and public funds were not affected by this foreign intrusion.
Wang was elected to the Arcadia City Council in October 2022, a city in Los Angeles County, California, where the mayor is chosen by council members.
Wang faces up to 10 years in prison after pleading guilty to the federal charge, while Los Angeles County District Attorney Bill Esailey said the case is a new example of Beijing's attempts to expand its influence within U.S. institutions.
"The real concern is the ability of a foreign client to reach the highest elected local offices," Isaily said. He warned of the escalation of attempts at external political influence.
Her former partner, Sun, was convicted in 2024 of conspiracy and acting as a foreign agent and sentenced to four years in prison in February after he was found to have carried out tasks for Chinese officials that included spreading propaganda and monitoring groups inside the United States that Beijing considers hostile.
Prosecutors said Chinese actors sought to push Wang up to political ascension with the goal of reaching higher positions that served Chinese interests in California.
Although the defendant appeared before a judge with the help of a Mandarin interpreter and was released on $25,000 bail, Wang's legal predicament remains.
The case is part of a broader series of U.S. investigations into China's attempts to influence policy and decision-making within the United States through media, political and intelligence tools, prompting U.S. counterintelligence services since 2022 to warn of Beijing's growing overt and covert methods of influence.