California Post89%
Arcadia mayor Eileen Wang admits acting as Chinese spy, running fake news website with ex-lover in shocking plea deal 63%
By Joe Burn0% Ben Chapman0%
5/11/2026, 8:30:20 PM
BS Summary: This article contains 15 faulty reasoning types, including Negativity Bias, Out-Group Homogeneity Bias, and Hasty Generalization, with Biased Writer Voice as the most egregious example at 42.2% saturation with 280 hits. Analysis detected 1,308 faulty-reasoning hits from 664 analyzed words, generating a BS Score of 58.3% and a BS Rank of 63% (6,227 of 16,813 articles). This article is worse (more manipulative) than 63.00% of the article peer group.
The mayor of Arcadia admitted to acting as an illegal foreign agent of China, resigning from her position in a shocking federal plea deal unsealed on Monday.
Eileen Wang agreed with prosecutors that she worked with the People’s Republic of China to boost propaganda with a fake news website on US soil between 2020 and 2022.
She was elected to Arcadia City Council in November 2022 — the city is located in the San Gabriel Valley within LA County.
Wang, 58, worked with her then fiancé, Yaoning “Mike” Sun, on a web site called “U.S.
News Center,” which claimed to be news source for Chinese Americans, according to court documents.
But in reality the pair were carrying out Beijing’s orders through the site.
Wang and Sun “executed directives” from the Chinese government, posting propaganda designed to boost China, all while reporting back to their masters with screenshots showing how many people viewed the stories, according to the plea agreement.
In one case, Wang’s spymaster ordered her to post pre-written news articles, including a PRC official-written essay in the Los Angeles Times, the plea deal states.
“There is no genocide in Xinjiang; there is no such thing as ‘forced labor’ in any production activity, including cotton production.
Spreading such rumor is to defame China, destroy Xinjiang’s safety and stability,” wrote Wang’s master, according to the plea agreement.
Wang complied and her handler wrote back, “So fast, thank you everyone.”
In another case, Wang’s PRC boss commended her on page views received by a certain piece of propaganda.
Wang wrote back, “Thank you leader.”
Wang pled guilty to the federal charge at her arraignment in downtown Los Angeles on Monday afternoon.
She faces a maximum of 10 years in prison.
LA’s top federal prosecutor, Bill Essayli, said this is not the first time China has been caught trying to exert its influence in the United States.
“Ms.
Wang is just the latest to act as an agent for the PRC and it should terrify Americans that she was able to rise to the highest levels of local office in her city,” Essayli said.
Under the terms of the plea agreement, Wang admitted that that she acted under the control of Chinese officials to promote propaganda in the U.S.
Prosecutors in 2024 charged Sun with conspiracy and acting as an illegal agent of a foreign government.
Wang said her relationship with Sun ended that year.
Her ex-lover also served as campaign manager for her City Council run.
The mayor of Arcadia is drawn from the Council on a rotating basis.
Wang in 2024 told the Los Angeles Times that she had relocated to Southern California from China three decades earlier.
She said mother was a doctor of Chinese medicine and acupuncture and her father was a physician in Sichuan province before he got a job working at the University of Southern California.
The PRC has attempted for years to influence U.S. policy and governance through propaganda and espionage, prompting counterintelligence officials in 2022 to warn about China’s increasing use of overt and covert means to influence policymaking.
The U.S.
House of Representatives Ethics Committee in 2022 closed a two-year investigation into allegations that disgraced former Rep.
Eric Swalwell had ties to an alleged Chinese spy named Christine Fang who volunteered on his congressional campaign.
The committee warned Swalwell “of the possibility that foreign governments may attempt to secure improper influence through gifts and other interactions,” in a letter sent at the probe’s closure.
Federal agents last month raided Lancaster City Hall and the homes of a pair of politicians from the high-desert town in an investigation of links between the two men and China-based electric-car manufacturer BYD, which is running America’s first trial of electric buses in the city.
“The concern was that the buses could be used for spying,” said a person with knowledge of the probe.
Analysis
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