Eileen Wang, who served as mayor of Arcadia, will plead guilty to one count of acting in the United States as an illegal agent of a foreign government, after admitting she coordinated with Chinese government officials to promote pro-China propaganda on a news website that she operated.

Hours after the announcement of the felony federal charge, which carries up to 10 years in prison, she resigned from her position as mayor and on the city council.

According to Ms Wang’s plea agreement, from late 2020 until 2022, she and Yaoning “Mike” Sun “received and executed directives from PRC government officials” − one of whom she referred to as “leader” − to post the content on US News Center, which claimed to be a news source for the area’s Chinese-American community.

One of the officials was a “high-level member of the PRC intelligence apparatus” who had met with Xi Jinping, the Chinese president, and regularly attended military parades and other Chinese Communist Party events.

Sun is serving a four-year sentence in federal prison after pleading guilty in October 2025 to the same charge.

Ms Wang was elected to the city council in 2022 and in February became mayor of Arcadia, located 13 miles north-east of Los Angeles, where 59 per cent of the population is Asian, according to US census data.

The city said all of the misconduct referred to in the charges took place before her term in office.

In one instance from June 2021, a Chinese official sent a government-written essay to a WeChat group chat that included Ms Wang.

The essay published in the Los Angeles Times denied reports of forced labour involving Uyghur people in Xinjiang − an abuse the US government has designated as genocide − and claimed “there is no genocide”.

Minutes later, Ms Wang published the article on US News Center and linked the piece in the chat.

The official responded: “So fast, thank you everyone.”

Two months later, in August 2021, Ms Wang and three other members of the group chat shared links to that article and were thanked by the Chinese official, the DoJ said.

That official then requested that Ms Wang make edits to the piece, after which she sent a new link with the changes along with a screenshot showing that it had been viewed more than 15,000 times.

“Great,” the official said.

Ms Wang replied: “Thank you leader.”

In November 2021, Ms Wang asked John Chen, the high-level intelligence officer, to post an article from her website that urged Americans to respect China’s “democratic rights”, writing: “This is what the Ministry of Foreign Affairs wants to send.”

Chen is serving a 20-month term in federal prison after pleading guilty in a New York court to charges of acting as an illegal agent of China and conspiracy to bribe a public official.

In her plea agreement, Ms Wang admitted that she had not disclosed on her website that the content had been posted at the direction of the Chinese government, and that she had not told the federal government that she was acting as an agent for China while residing in the US.

Bill Essayli, the first assistant US attorney for the Central District of California, said: “Individuals in our country who covertly do the bidding of foreign governments undermine our democracy.

“This plea agreement is the latest success in our determination to defend the homeland against China’s efforts to corrupt our institutions.”

Appearing in court on Monday, Ms Wang listened to the proceedings through a Mandarin interpreter and appeared to sniffle and wipe her eyes and nose with her hand and a tissue.

In a statement to the Los Angeles Times, her lawyers said: “She apologises and is sorry for the mistakes she has made in her personal life.

“Her love and devotion for the Arcadia community have not changed and did not waver. She asks for the community’s understanding and continued support.”