Arcadia, California is a small city of about 60,000 people that lies north of downtown LA and directly east of Pasadena. Today, Arcadia’s mayor abruptly resigned her position after making a plea deal with the DOJ. Her first court appearance is also today.
In a related filing, Wang has agreed to plead guilty to the felony count, which comes with a statutory maximum sentence of 10 years in federal prison.
She is expected to make her initial appearance this afternoon in United States District Court in downtown Los Angeles. Wang is expected to plead guilty in the coming weeks.
Wang was elected in November 2022 to the Arcadia City Council, a five-person governing body from which the mayor is selected on a rotating basis.
“Individuals in our country who covertly do the bidding of foreign governments undermine our democracy,” said First Assistant United States Attorney Bill Essayli. “This plea agreement is the latest success in our determination to defend the homeland against China’s efforts to corrupt our institutions.”
Here’s what Wand did to earn some time behind bars.
From late 2020 through at least 2022, Wang worked with Yaoning “Mike” Sun, who was her fiance at the time, to run a website called U.S. News Center that branded itself as a news source for Chinese Americans, according to the agreement. Both Wang and Sun “executed directives” from Chinese government officials, posting requested articles and reporting back with screenshots showing how many people viewed the stories, according to the unsealed agreement.
On June 10, 2021, the agreement says, Wang received a message from a government official about “China’s Stance on the Xinjiang Issue.”
At the time, the Chinese government was carrying out a campaign of incarceration, persecution and “reeducation” of Uyghurs in the Xinjiang province.
“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,” read the message from the Chinese government official, according to the plea agreement.
Minutes after receiving the link, Wang posted the article on her website and responded to the Chinese government official with a link to the article on her website, according to the court filing…
Prosecutors also say Wang edited articles at the request of officials and shared information showing the reach of the posts.
“Thank you leader,” she wrote on Aug. 20, 2021, after being complimented for a post that was viewed more than 15,000 times, according to the plea agreement.
She was blogging for Xi Jinping! Her fiancé was also her campaign manager back in 2022 but she apparently dumped him at some point in 2024. That same year, he was charged with acting as an illegal agent of a foreign government.
Apparently the plan was to promote her until she reached a high level as a politician then she would be more useful as a mouthpiece for China. Her former fiancé got a two year sentence for his involvement so it’s possible Wang’s sentence will be similar. In any case, her political career is over.
Frankly, I don’t know why China bothers with these long-term schemes to promote people who will defend them. Why spend all that time and energy when Hasan Piker is willing to go all in on supporting China without even being asked?
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