ARCADIA, Calif. — In China, President Trump is negotiating with Chinese President Xi Jinping this week, in a remarkably friendly visit despite friction between the two nations on trade, sanctions, and China's role in the Iran war.
Back at home, court documents unsealed this week show that a Los Angeles-area mayor reached a deal with federal prosecutors after admitting that she acted as an illegal foreign agent of China — a case experts say is emblematic of Beijing's broadening tradecraft strategy in the U.S. and around the globe.
Eileen Wang, now the former mayor of the City of Arcadia, agreed to plead guilty to the felony charge accusing her of promoting the interests of the People's Republic of China (PRC) under the direction of Chinese officials, according to court filings. The 58-year-old abruptly resigned from her position on Monday, hours after the plea agreement was made public by the Department of Justice. She faces a sentence of up to 10 years in prison.
Federal prosecutors say that from late 2020 to 2022, Wang and a man named Yaoning "Mike" Sun ran a website called U.S. News Center targeting the area's large Chinese diaspora. (The city of roughly 55,000 residents has an Asian-majority population of about 59% as of 2024, with over 46% of residents saying they are foreign-born.) According to the Justice Department, the two used the platform to disseminate pro-China propaganda at the behest of PRC government officials while concealing their ties to the Chinese government from the public.
"Individuals in our country who covertly do the bidding of foreign governments undermine our democracy," First Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli said in a statement. "This plea agreement is the latest success in our determination to defend the homeland against China's efforts to corrupt our institutions."
In a joint statement, Wang's attorneys, Brian Sun and Jason Liang, said "she apologizes and is sorry for the mistakes she has made in her personal life."
Sun suggested that Wang, who emigrated from China to the U.S. and has been involved in Arcadia community service for at least 15 years, was persuaded by "someone who she believed to be her fiance" to act on behalf of the PRC, saying, "her trust and love for apparently the wrong person who ultimately led her astray – require her to step away from public service." (It's worth noting that Wang has previously described Yaoning "Mike" Sun as her fiance).
Sun, the lawyer, also noted that Wang's wrongdoings outlined in the plea agreement pre-dated her swearing-in in December 2022.
A 'whole of society' approach
As China consolidates its global might, experts say Beijing is ramping up efforts to leverage the Chinese diaspora to both soften U.S. views of the authoritarian government and promote pro-Beijing politicians, particularly at the state or local levels.
Nicholas Eftimiades, a former senior U.S. intelligence officer who specializes in Chinese espionage, told NPR he's seen an uptick in this approach in recent years.
"We've certainly seen a number of cases of China attempting to recruit lower level officials on long term approaches so that they can conduct covert influence on the United States," he said.
For example, in 2024, federal prosecutors charged a former New York state government employee with acting "as an undisclosed agent of the Chinese government while her husband, Christopher Hu, facilitated the transfer of millions of dollars in kickbacks for personal gain." (A trial in late 2025 ended with a hung jury, and the case is scheduled to be retried in early 2027).
Even a senator's office appears to have been infiltrated. In 2018, Politico first reported that a San Francisco-based staffer for former Sen. Dianne Feinstein was allegedly recruited by Chinese intelligence to report back about local politics. At the time, Feinstein acknowledged that the FBI had informed her that it had concerns that China was "seeking to recruit" a staffer.
Eftimiades said China is carrying out a "whole of society approach." Unlike Western intelligence agencies, which focus espionage efforts on other intelligence organizations or militaries, China also focuses on spying at a societal level, he explained. "That means that they're recruiting mayors and congressmen with the hope that they'll rise into greater positions."
Once in place, he said the idea is that these leaders could carry out a range of operations on behalf of the Chinese Communist Party, including spying on members of the Chinese diaspora who are perceived as dissidents or monitoring the activities of visiting Taiwanese leadership.
For example, federal prosecutors say Yaoning "Mike" Sun, who worked with Wang on the website and as her campaign advisor, closely surveilled the then-president of Taiwan when she visited the area in 2023.
Sun is currently serving 48 months in federal prison in a separate case for acting as an illegal agent of China, "including while serving as a campaign advisor for a political candidate who was elected to the city council of a Southern California city," according to federal prosecutors. The candidate was unnamed in that case but the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Central District of California now confirms to NPR that the candidate was Wang.
The Chinese Embassy did not respond to NPR's request for comment on Wang's case and on broader allegations of espionage.
'This is what the Ministry of Foreign Affairs wants to send'
Chinese officials asked Wang to repost stories favoring the government's position on controversial issues, according to the plea agreement signed by the former mayor and federal prosecutors.
In June 2021, a PRC official sent Wang and several others in the same group chat a link to an essay in the Los Angeles Times "explaining China's stance on the Xinjiang issue," prosecutors said. According to court documents, the message read: "There is no genocide in Xinjiang; there is no such thing as 'forced labor' in any production activity, including cotton production. Spreading such rumor to do defame China, destroy Xinjiang's safety and stability, weaken local economy, suppress China's development."
Wang posted the article to U.S. News Center within minutes. She then responded to the PRC official with a link to the article on her website. The PRC official responded: "So fast, thank you everyone."
A few months later, in August 2021, Wang and the other members of the group chat shared links to another article on their respective websites, according to the plea agreement. When a PRC official then asked Wang to omit the name of a company mentioned in the story, she complied. Later, Wang sent a screenshot of the story, showing it had more than 15,000 views. The official praised her work, sending a couple of thumbs up emojis. She replied: "Thank you leader."
In November 2021, Wang communicated with John Chen, who prosecutors say is a high-level member of the PRC intelligence apparatus who has met with President Xi Jinping. He's now serving 20 months in federal prison. She urged him to post an article from her website. He hesitated, but according to the plea agreement, she was insistent. "This is what the Ministry of Foreign Affairs wants to send."
A hearing has not yet been scheduled for Wang to enter a guilty plea.
'Definitely the kind of stuff you see in the movies'
Arcadia's deputy city manager, Justine Bruno, said the city council only learned the full extent of the criminal charges levied against Wang on Monday, when the plea agreement was unsealed.
"These are serious charges for our community, and we understand that this is unsettling news for a lot of our local Arcadia residents, as well as the idea of foreign interference in local public office," Bruno told NPR.
She explained that city officials conducted an internal review of Wang's actions while on the council in December of 2024, when Wang's former campaign advisor and fiance was initially arrested. "At that time we conducted our own internal review just to ensure that there was no interference, there was no involvement with city staff or city finances or city decision making. … We were able to clear that at that time," Bruno said.
But some in Arcadia are skeptical that Wang was no longer working on behalf of the PRC while in the position.
"This is happening everywhere. As long as there's Chinese investment in places, they will install spies, agents, politicians, puppets, Manchurian candidates, you name it," resident Robert Dell told NPR as he walked his dog on a recent afternoon.
More than a dozen Arcadia residents of Chinese descent, who declined to give their full names for this story for fear of retribution from China's government, told NPR they believe she acted to influence attitudes toward Beijing.
And others are just simply reeling. Nishiki Liu told NPR he was stunned when he learned of the charges against Wang. "It's definitely the kind of stuff you see in the movies, so that's wild that it's happening right here," he said.
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