Eileen Wang, former mayor of the city of Arcadia, California, could receive up to 10 years in prison after appearing before the Federal Court in downtown Los Angeles to plead guilty to having worked as a secret agent in the service of China.

It is striking that Arcadia is a city inhabited by about 53,000 people, mostly Asians.

The 56-year-old Democrat born in Sichuan, China, resigned as mayor on May 11, after being accused in federal court of acting as an agent of the “Asian Giant.”

In a statement, the Prosecutor's Office described the delicate situation in which Wang finds himself.

“She is charged by formal complaint with one count of acting in the United States as an illegal agent of a foreign government,” the document states.

However, advised by her legal team, the former mayor reached an agreement with the authorities to accept her guilt and thus achieve a less severe penalty.

From this, he admitted to having worked “under the direction and control of officials of the Government of the People's Republic of China.”

Her responsibilities included disseminating pro-China propaganda in the United States, a task carried out from late 2020 to 2022, the year in which she became mayor.

Another role she came to play was collaborating with Yaoning “Mike” Sun, her then fiancé and partner, to run the US News Center, a website whose goal was to be a source of news for the Chinese-American community.

This character also appeared in the Democrat's campaign records as her treasurer.

By pleading guilty, Sun began serving a four-year prison sentence since October.

Thanks to the payment of a $25,000 bail, Eileen Wang will be free until her sentence, which is scheduled to be handed down on October 6.

Due to the nature of her crime, she could be sentenced to a maximum of 10 years in prison and three more years on probation.

“We cannot allow this moment to become an excuse for people to lump entire communities together or weaponize ethnicity for political gain,” said Paul Cheng, interim mayor of Arcadia, in a statement.