{"id":714,"date":"2026-05-15T18:30:11","date_gmt":"2026-05-15T18:30:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/california-relocation-journal.com\/?p=714"},"modified":"2026-05-15T18:30:11","modified_gmt":"2026-05-15T18:30:11","slug":"was-the-mayor-a-spy-l-a-suburb-left-wondering-about-chinas-effort-to-influence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/california-relocation-journal.com\/?p=714","title":{"rendered":"Was the mayor a spy? L.A. suburb left wondering about China\u2019s effort to influence"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

As Eileen Wang and her supporters tell it, the former Arcadia mayor was led astray by a man she trusted and loved.<\/p>\n

Read more The Steyer campaign pays influencers. Their posts don\u2019t always make that clear<\/a><\/p>\n

After chasing her political ambitions in the San Gabriel Valley suburb, Wang, 58, won a City Council seat in 2022 with the help of a campaign advisor who was also her romantic partner. Two years later, he was charged by federal authorities with secretly working on behalf of the Chinese government. <\/p>\n

Wang, a naturalized U.S. citizen, distanced herself from her ex and remained in office, becoming mayor earlier this year. The scandal had mostly quieted \u2014 until Monday, on the eve of President Trump\u2019s planned trip to Beijing, when a plea deal was unsealed revealing Wang\u2019s own murky role as an agent for China.<\/p>\n

Now, Wang has become a national political talking point, with critics painting her as a calculating foreign agent who sought to infiltrate the American government and undermine democracy.<\/p>\n

Katie Miller, wife of top Trump advisor Stephen Miller, blasted Wang on social media site X as a \u201cspy.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cThis is pure China trying to influence U.S. politics and U.S. elections,\u201d Katie Miller said on Fox News.<\/p>\n

Back home, some of Wang\u2019s former colleagues in local government say they repeatedly tried to raise alarms about her. <\/p>\n

\u201cThere were red flags everywhere,\u201d said Sharon Kwan, an Arcadia city council member and former mayor. <\/p>\n

Wang admitted in her plea agreement to posting and editing web content at the request of the Chinese government \u2014 without disclosing her ties to U.S. authorities, as the law requires. She ran afoul of the Foreign Agents Registration Act, or FARA, a federal statute that experts said has seen ramped up enforcement over the last decade, particularly in cases involving China.<\/p>\n

But those familiar with the law \u2014 and international espionage \u2014 said it does not appear that Wang was engaged in spycraft as it is commonly understood.<\/p>\n

Dennis Wilder, a former senior U.S. intelligence official and professor at Georgetown University, said that, in the CIA, Wang would be referred to as \u201can agent of influence.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cShe\u2019s not a spy in the Jason Bourne sense,\u201d Wilder said, referring to the fictional American agent. \u201cShe\u2019s not out there recruiting sources and that sort of thing. That\u2019s not the role that they want for her. But they see this other role as extremely important.\u201d<\/p>\n

A run for city council<\/h2>\n

Wang moved to the U.S. around 30 years ago, in part, she told The Times in 2024, because she wanted \u201cfreedom for speech, freedom [for] thinking.\u201d<\/p>\n

Her mother was a Chinese medicine and acupuncture doctor and her father was a physician in Sichuan province before working at USC, she said. Authorities have not detailed how she immigrated or her path to citizenship. She landed in Arcadia, she said, lured by what the school district in the affluent city of 54,000 could offer her two young boys. <\/p>\n

She ran an after-school program and was involved in some community organizations, but said she did not move in political circles until shortly before her 2022 run for city council. She switched her party affiliation from Republican to Democrat, which, she said, spoke more to the needs of voters in her district, where many share her Chinese roots.<\/p>\n

\u201cI walk about 140 days,\u201d she said of her campaign, adding that she hit every door in her district five times. \u201cI never stop.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yaoning \u201cMike\u201d Sun, Wang\u2019s former fiance, managed her campaign.<\/p>\n

Kwan, who was elected to the city council at the same time, recalled Sun as a constant presence at city meetings and events, \u201calways with the camera.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAlways recording, always promoting her,\u201d Kwan said. \u201cShe was like a celebrity to him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Two years after Wang took office, in December 2024, federal authorities arrested Sun on suspicion of acting as an illegal agent of China.<\/p>\n

Prosecutors accused Sun in a criminal complaint of working with another man to cultivate Wang as a political asset for the People\u2019s Republic of China or PRC. Federal prosecutors in Los Angeles identified the other man as John Chen, describing him in a sentencing memorandum as \u201ca high-level member of the PRC intelligence apparatus,\u201d who had \u201cmet personally\u201d with Chinese President Xi Jinping. <\/p>\n

Chen instructed Sun to submit reports on Wang, referred to throughout the complaint as \u201cIndividual 1,\u201d to Chinese officials, including one the federal complaint said they referred to as the \u201cBig Boss.\u201d A draft of the report allegedly included a request for $80,000 to \u201csupport pro-PRC activities in the United States.\u201d Sun was also told to tout Wang\u2019s relationship with an unnamed U.S. congressperson, the complaint said.<\/p>\n

Both men eventually pleaded guilty to working as unregistered agents of China, with Sun sentenced this year to four years in prison. Chen was sentenced to 20 months.<\/p>\n

Wang spoke with Chen on the day she was elected and three more times over the next few months, according to the complaint in Sun\u2019s case. <\/p>\n

\u201cYou are doing a good job, I hope you can continue the good work, make Chinese people proud,\u201d Chen told Wang, in a conversation on Jan. 23, 2023, according to the complaint in Sun\u2019s case. <\/p>\n

Chen and Sun also coordinated a trip to China in 2023 for Wang to meet with \u201cleadership,\u201d which would include stops in six different places, according to the complaint. It\u2019s unclear whom Wang met with on the trip.<\/p>\n

The fallout<\/h2>\n

After Sun\u2019s arrest, Wang denied to several people that they had been engaged to marry. She said during a council meeting that their relationship ended in spring 2024. <\/p>\n

Read more Democrat Rep. Steve Cohen ending campaign after redraw of his Memphis district<\/a><\/p>\n

Jolene Cadenbach, a pastor in Arcadia, said Wang confided in her that \u201cshe had been lied to\u201d by Sun. <\/p>\n

\u201cI think he did a con job on her,\u201d Cadenbach said.<\/p>\n

The recent plea agreement gave the wrong impression about Wang, the pastor said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt made her sound like she was some kind of spy and it wasn\u2019t like that at all,\u201d she said. Wang was only following Sun\u2019s orders, she added: \u201cHe told her to put up this site, she did it. She didn\u2019t really investigate it.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a statement, Wang\u2019s lawyers said she \u201capologizes and is sorry for the mistakes she has made in her personal life.\u201d They said \u201cshe genuinely loves this city and is devoted to the people and the community within it,\u201d but \u201cher trust and love for apparently the wrong person\u2026 ultimately led her astray.\u201d<\/p>\n

After Sun was charged in 2024, Sonia Martin and other Arcadia residents showed up at council meetings carrying protest signs. Martin said she expected Wang to be pushed out. Instead, she said, most council members appeared to unite behind Wang.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey wanted to have this feeling of, like, everything\u2019s great here. We\u2019re all warm. Look at us, it\u2019s kumbaya,\u201d Martin said.<\/p>\n

Kwan said she repeatedly tried to bring up the concerns of constituents to her fellow council members but was brushed off. <\/p>\n

\u201cEverybody was just so silent,\u201d Kwan said. \u201cThis is not something where we can just dismiss and pretend nothing happened.\u201d<\/p>\n

The job of mayor rotates among Arcadia City Council members, and when it was Kwan\u2019s turn last April, she warned during her swearing-in speech that constituents \u201cmust remain vigilant against influence of foreign governments, including efforts by the Chinese Communist Party, that may seek to shape local policy for the interests that do not align with our residents.\u201d<\/p>\n

Since Wang\u2019s plea agreement became public, some have scoffed at the notion that Chinese spies would establish an outpost in Arcadia, or that the web posts she made before becoming mayor amounted to any sort of meaningful propaganda campaign.<\/p>\n

But according to Sun\u2019s plea agreement, local office was just the start. Prosecutors said Sun\u2019s 2023 report for Chinese officials boasted that \u201cduring the 2022 U.S. midterm elections, I orchestrated and organized my team to win the election for city council.\u201d He called Wang a \u201cnew political star.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wilder, the former U.S. intelligence official, said that sounded like a familiar strategy.<\/p>\n

\u201cMaybe she would end up in Congress some day or at the state government level. They invest in these folks hoping they move up the political food chain,\u201d the Georgetown professor said. \u201cThat is part of the Chinese long game.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018San Gabriel Valley deserves better\u2019<\/h2>\n

In her plea agreement, Wang admitted that from late 2020 through at least 2022, she worked with Sun to run a website called U.S. News Center that branded itself as a news source for Chinese Americans. <\/p>\n

Wang and Sun \u201cexecuted directives\u201d from Chinese government officials, posting requested articles and reporting back with screenshots showing how many people viewed the stories, the agreement says.<\/p>\n

Prosecutors also say Wang edited articles at the request of officials and shared information showing the reach of the posts.<\/p>\n

\u201cThank you leader,\u201d she wrote on Aug. 20, 2021, after being complimented for a post that was viewed more than 15,000 times, according to the plea agreement.<\/p>\n

Wang never disclosed that the Chinese government had directed her to post the content, according to court documents.<\/p>\n

That sort of low-level violation of the law is not supposed to trigger federal charges unless, according to a February 2025 memo by then-Atty. Gen. Pam Bondi to Justice Department prosecutors, the case involved \u201cconduct similar to more traditional espionage.\u201d The Trump administration has pursued other high-profile foreign agent cases recently, with prosecutors winning a conviction Wednesday of a man charged with running a covert police station in Manhattan and keeping tabs on political dissidents.<\/p>\n

When news broke of the charges and plea deal involving Wang, current and former city officials said they were not surprised. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe warning signs around Eileen Wang were public for more than a year before this plea, agreement, and too many people in positions of influence defended and supported her,\u201d April Verlato, a former mayor of Arcadia, said in a statement. \u201cOur electeds should have represented what was best for the community and held her accountable. The San Gabriel Valley deserves better.\u201d<\/p>\n

Paul Cheng, mayor pro tem of Arcadia, said the council didn\u2019t move earlier to oust Wang because a majority of its members wanted to let the federal investigation run its course.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe public always says, \u2018Why didn\u2019t you investigate her when her boyfriend was arrested? Why didn\u2019t you do something?\u2019\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

But, he emphasized, \u201ccouncil members are not federal investigators.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are not supposed to get involved,\u201d said Cheng, an attorney. \u201cIt would make the situation 10 times worse.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cheng spoke highly of Wang, painting her as a committed civil servant with a passion for veterans, first responders and diversifying the businesses on Baldwin Avenue, the city\u2019s main corridor.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe probably attended the most events compared to all of us,\u201d he said. \u201cPeople have tried getting me to say she\u2019s a horrible person, but I can only say what I saw, which was I thought she did a good job on council.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more L.A.\u2019s ultra-urban rivers wash tons of trash out to sea. There\u2019s a plan to change that before the Olympics<\/a><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the days since Arcadia Mayor Eileen Wang admitted to undisclosed work on behalf of China, two starkly different portraits of the community leader have emerged: Supporters say she was a loyal public servant duped by her former partner, while critics suspect something more nefarious.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":713,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-714","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics"],"yoast_head":"\nWas the mayor a spy? 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