En borgmästare i södra Kalifornien har gått med på att erkänna sig skyldig till att ha agerat som illegal agent för den kinesiska regimen och har avgått från sitt ämbete, uppgav myndigheter på måndagen.
Eileen Wang, borgmästare i Arcadia, åtalades i april för ett fall av att ha agerat som illegal agent för en utländsk regering i USA. Hon anklagades för att ha utfört uppdrag åt kinesiska tjänstemän, som att dela artiklar som var gynnsamma för Peking, utan att i förväg anmäla detta till den amerikanska regeringen som lagen kräver.
Den 58-åriga kvinnan valdes i november 2022 in i ett femmannaråd, från vilket borgmästaren väljs på rotationsbasis.
Stadens chef Dominic Lazzaretto sade i ett pressmeddelande att varken stadens ekonomi eller personal var inblandade.
Next, a disturbing story of a U.S. politician doing the bidding of communist China.
The Justice Department saying a California mayor has agreed to plead guilty to operating
as an agent for the CCP.
NTD's Daniel Monaghan has the details of yet another troubling case of Beijing attempting
to influence events here in the U.S.
Arcadia Mayor Eileen Wong resigned yesterday from her position after being charged with
Wong was voted onto the Arcadia City Council in November 2022 and was mayor when the charges
were brought.
The position of mayor rotates among the five-member council.
Arcadia is about 13 miles northeast of downtown Los Angeles.
Wong resigned following the announcement of the charges.
Court documents say Wong and her fiancé and campaign treasurer Yao Ning Mike Sun of Chino
on behalf of instructions from Chinese regime operatives from late 2020 through 2022.
The two ran a site called U.S. News Center marketed to the local Chinese-American community
as a news outlet.
But prosecutors say in reality, it was used to spread CCP propaganda.
According to Wong's plea agreement, a Chinese official sent her pre-written content on WeChat
in 2021 denying genocide and forced labor allegations in Xinjiang and accusing critics
of trying to undermine China.
Prosecutors say Wong uploaded the article to her website within minutes and sent the
link to the official to which he replied so fast, thank you everyone.
By August 2021, prosecutors say Wong was editing articles at an official's request and forwarding
screenshots showing how many views the articles were receiving.
After a post showed over 15,000 views, the official said great and Wong wrote back, thank
you leader.
Wong acknowledged in her plea agreement that she never notified the attorney general that
she was working as a CCP operative and she never disclosed on her website that some of
its content had been published at the direction of CCP officials.
Court filings also show Wong corresponded in November 2021 with John Chen, identified
as a senior figure in the CCP's intelligence structure who attended elite CCP functions
and met personally with Chinese leader Xi Jinping.
Chen was sentenced in November 2024 to 20 months in federal prison after pleading guilty
to acting as an illegal Chinese agent and conspiracy to bribe a public official.
Wong faces up to 10 years in prison.
The FBI commented on the case, saying it will continue working to safeguard the integrity
of elections and keep hostile actors from undermining the voices of the American people.
Daniel Monaghan, NTD News.
