Sometimes there is a certain satisfaction in being able to remove the "alleged" from reporting on a public official who has betrayed the public trust. Case in point: Eileen Li Wang, the now-former Mayor of Arcadia, California, has pleaded guilty to charges of acting as an agent of the Chinese government, or, in other words, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
With the plea, she now faces up to 10 years in prison.
The former mayor of a Southern California city admitted in federal court Friday that she acted as an illegal agent of the Chinese government, formally pleading guilty in a case prosecutors have described as a brazen effort to spread Beijing-backed propaganda inside the United States.
Eileen Li Wang, the former mayor of Arcadia, California, pleaded guilty to acting as an agent of a foreign government without notifying U.S. authorities, a felony offense carrying a maximum penalty of 10 years in federal prison, three years of supervised release, a $250,000 fine and a $100 special assessment fee.
Federal prosecutors allege Wang acted "at the direction and control" of Chinese government officials between 2020 and 2022, coordinating with individuals in the United States to distribute pro-Beijing messaging without registering with the U.S. attorney general as required by law. The conduct described in the case occurred before Wang was elected to the Arcadia City Council in 2022 and later became mayor through the city's rotating system.
RedState's Rusty Weiss reported on this story when it initially broke:
Read More: Shocking: Democrat California Mayor Resigns After DOJ Nails Her as Secret CCP Agent
While Eileen Wang served as Arcadia's mayor, she wasn't elected to the job; instead, having been elected to the city council, she became mayor through that town's rather odd rotating-mayoralty.
Wang, 58, is a Southern California politician who was elected to the Arcadia City Council in November 2022 and later became mayor through the body’s rotating leadership system.
In Arcadia, the mayor is selected from the five-member council, a structure that elevated Wang to the role after her initial election to public office.
A longtime resident, she became the first Chinese-American woman elected to the council, helping make it majority female for the first time. Before entering politics, Wang was active in local civic and business organizations, including the Arcadia Rotary Club and Chamber of Commerce, and served as president of the American Southwest Chamber of Commerce USA from 2018 to 2022.
Wang may not have had any national security secrets to spill, but she nevertheless betrayed the public's trust.
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China has long been known to have extensive propaganda operations, both in and out of China. Much of it seems aimed at covering up the Middle Kingdom's failing economy, its exploding electric cars, and its abuse of the Uyghur minority. Why they chose the mayor of a seemingly insignificant place like Arcadia, California, to spread their horse squeeze is another question, although it is a near-certainty that Eileen Wang is far from the only person taking the Chinese propaganda line.
Sentencing for Eileen Wang is currently scheduled for October 6th.
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