Aileen Wang has agreed to plead guilty to serving as an illegal agent of the Chinese government, which carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison.
LOS ANGELES — A Southern California mayor has agreed to plead guilty to serving as an illegal agent of the Chinese government and has resigned from city government, officials said Monday.
Arcadia Mayor Erin Wang was indicted in April on one count of acting as an unlawful agent of a foreign government in the United States. She is accused of taking direction from Chinese officials, such as sharing articles favorable to Beijing without notifying the U.S. government in advance as required by law.
The 58-year-old was elected in November 2022 to the five-member city council, in which the mayor rotates.
City Manager Dominic Lazzaretto said in a news release that no city finance or staff members were involved.
“We want to be clear: This investigation involves personal conduct and the allegations are against conduct that ceased after Ms. Wang was sworn in in December 2022,” he said.
Federal officials said she has agreed to plead guilty and face up to 10 years in federal prison.
Wang’s attorneys, Jason Liang and Brian Sun, said in a statement that she recognized the seriousness of the charges and accepted responsibility for “past personal mistakes.”
“She apologizes for the mistakes she made in her personal life,” Liang and Sun said in a statement. “Her love and devotion to the Acadian community has not changed and has not wavered.”
According to her plea agreement, Wang and associate Sun Yaoning worked on behalf of People’s Republic of China government officials between late 2020 and 2022 to advance their interests by promoting pro-People’s Republic of China propaganda in the United States. Sun Yaoning is serving a four-year sentence. plead guilty The same charges apply in October. He is also listed in campaign documents as the treasurer of Wang’s 2022 campaign.
Wang and Sun ran American News Center, a news website targeting the Chinese-American community, and were instructed by Chinese government officials to publish pro-China content on the website.
In June 2021, a government official sent Wang a link to a letter to the editor of the Los Angeles Times written by the Consul General of the People’s Republic of China in Los Angeles.
The article refuted reports of persecution, forced labor and abuse of Uyghurs in China’s Xinjiang province, stating, “There has never been genocide in Xinjiang, nor has there been forced labor in the region’s cotton fields or any other sector.”
Within minutes, Wang shared the link on her news site.
The United States and several other countries have declared Beijing’s policies against the Uyghurs constitute genocide and crimes against humanity.
Wang’s lawyer said Wang was engaged to Sun at the time. She said the relationship ended in the spring of 2024. Their statement noted that “her trust and love for the wrong people clearly ultimately led her astray.”
Wang also communicated with John Chen, who also admitted his crime Acting as an agent of the Chinese government and sentenced to 20 months in prison.
Wang is expected to appear in federal court in downtown Los Angeles on Monday afternoon and plead guilty in the coming weeks.
Arcadia is located approximately 13 miles northeast of Los Angeles. The city, with a population of about 53,000, is mostly Asian and has a high concentration of Chinese residents.
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