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.
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Wang and [her colleague Yaoning “Mike”] Sun operated the news website U.S. News Center, aimed at the Chinese American community, and were instructed by Chinese government officials to post pro-PRC content on it.
In one instance in June 2021, a [Chinese] government official sent Wang a link to a letter to the editor published in the Los Angeles Times written by the consul general of the People’s Republic of China in Los Angeles.
The piece refuted reports of the persecution, forced labour, and abuse of Uyghers in China’s Xinjiang province, stating, “There has never been genocide in Xinjiang or forced labour in the region’s cotton fields or any other sector.”
Within minutes, Wang shared the link on her news site.
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The U.S. and several other countries have declared that Beijing’s policies against the Uyghurs amounted to genocide and crimes against humanity.
At the time, Wang was engaged to Sun, her attorneys said. She has said that relationship ended in spring 2024. Their statement references “her trust and love for apparently the wrong person who ultimately led her astray.”
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.
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Arcadia [where Wang has been the mayor] is located about 21 kilometres northeast of Los Angeles. The city of about 53,000 is majority Asian and has a high concentration of Chinese residents.