Eileen Wang, the former mayor of Arcadia, California, pleaded guilty Friday to acting in the United States as an illegal agent of the Chinese government, closing a case that has drawn attention to foreign influence operations reaching into local elected office.
According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California, Wang admitted to sharing news articles favorable to Beijing with Chinese officials without first notifying the U.S. Department of Justice, a requirement under the Foreign Agents Registration Act. The conduct stretched from late 2020 through 2022, prosecutors said, and ended before she won a seat on the Arcadia City Council in November of that year.
Wang, 56, was charged in April with one count of acting as an illegal foreign agent and resigned as mayor earlier this month. In Arcadia, the mayor is selected on a rotating basis from the five-member city council; Wang had held the rotating role since December 2024.
Her attorneys and city officials have maintained that the illegal activity ceased before she took public office. Wang had previously signaled her intent to plead guilty when she stepped down.
The case is the latest in a series of federal prosecutions alleging that individuals have acted as undeclared agents for Beijing in the United States. Arcadia, about 13 miles northeast of downtown Los Angeles, is a majority-Asian city of roughly 53,000 residents with a high concentration of Chinese-American households.
Wang was first elected to the council in 2022 after a career in real estate. She was the city’s first Asian-American mayor. A sentencing date has not yet been set.