“Thank You, Leader”: California Mayor Secretly Worked for Beijing While Climbing US Political Ladder, Feds Say

ARCADIA, Calif. – In a blockbuster case exposing foreign influence at the grassroots level of American democracy, former Arcadia Mayor Eileen Wang has agreed to plead guilty to acting as an illegal agent of the People’s Republic of China, federal prosecutors announced Monday. Wang, who resigned after the charges surfaced, now faces up to 10 years in federal prison and a $250,000 fine for what the Justice Department describes as a clandestine, multi-year campaign to spread pro-Beijing propaganda from inside the United States—long before she ever took the dais as mayor. From at least 2020 through 2022, authorities say, Wang took direct orders from Chinese government officials, publishing pre-written articles that denied forced labor and genocide in Xinjiang, and even messaging a convicted Chinese agent with the chilling words: “This is what the Ministry of Foreign Affairs wants to send.”

Prosecutors detailed a web of deceit in which Wang ran a website disguised as a local Chinese American news outlet—but which federal officials bluntly called a propaganda arm of the Chinese Communist Party. In one especially damning exchange, a Chinese official sent Wang an article denying atrocities in Xinjiang; she posted it within minutes and received the reply: “So fast, thank you everyone.” In another, after tweaking content at Beijing’s behest and boasting of 15,000 views, Wang wrote back, “Thank you leader.” All the while, she was running for office in Arcadia, a quiet Los Angeles County suburb, and eventually becoming mayor through a rotating council system. “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,” said Assistant Attorney General John Eisenberg. Wang never disclosed her foreign work, as federal law requires. She now awaits a guilty plea in federal court—and possible deportation if she is not a U.S. citizen. The FBI’s warning was stark: “By her own admission, Eileen Wang secretly served the interests of the Chinese government. Let this serve as a clear warning.”