A Southern California mayor has agreed to plead guilty to acting as an illegal agent for the Chinese government, and has resigned from her city position, officials said Monday.
Eileen Wang, the mayor of Arcadia, was charged in April with one count of acting in the United States as an illegal agent of a foreign government.
She was accused of doing the bidding of Chinese officials, such as sharing articles favorable to Beijing, without prior notification to the US government as required by law.
The 58-year-old was elected in November 2022 to a five-person city council, from which the mayor is selected on a rotating basis.
Federal officials said she has agreed to plead guilty to the felony, which comes with a maximum sentence of 10 years in federal prison.
Wang has also communicated with John Chen, who also pleaded guilty to being an agent for the Chinese government and was sentenced to 20 months in prison.
Wang was expected to appear in federal court Monday afternoon in downtown Los Angeles and plead guilty in the coming weeks. »