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Ex-Arcadia Mayor Wang pleads guilty to federal Hilton, Becerra heading for runoff in California governor race espionage charge; deadlocked council delays By City News Service choosing appointee to District 3 seat
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By Joe Taglieri joet@civicnewsgroup.com
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ileen Wang, who resigned from the Arcadia City Council earlier this month, pleaded guilty Friday to participating in a propaganda operation orchestrated by officials from the People's Republic of China. On Tuesday, the fourmember council deadlocked on choosing one of 11 candidates who have applied to fill the vacated seat, tabling the matter until the next regular City Council meeting June 16. Wang, who at the time of her resignation held the rotating mayor position, agreed to plead guilty April 1 to a felony count of acting as an illegal agent of a foreign government. Sentencing was scheduled for Oct. 6, when she could receive a prison sentence of up to 10 years. Wang admitted that she and her fiance at the time — Yaoning Sun, 65, of Chino Hills — operated the website U.S. News Center. Their target-audience was the local Chinese American community with directives from PRC government officials to publish articles favorable to Beijing. Neither Wang nor Sun gave prior notification of the propaganda activity to the U.S. government as the law requires, according to the plea agreement. Sun, who also goes by the first name Mike, pleaded guilty to secretly acting as a PRC agent in October and is serving a four-year
Eileen Wang accepts the title of mayor Feb. 3, 2026, as City Councilman David Fu, at left, Councilman Michael Cao and Public Works Director Paul Cranmer applaud along with the meeting's other attendees. | Photo courtesy of the city of Arcadia
federal prison sentence at the Metropolitan Detention Center in downtown Los Angeles. In one example cited in the plea deal document, Wang, 58, was directed through an encrypted message to publish an essay refuting reports by human rights groups of the abusive persecution and forced labor of the Uyghur population in China's Xinjiang province. The essay aimed to explain "China's stance on the Xinjiang issue — there is no genocide in Xinjiang; there is no such thing as 'forced labor' in any production activity, including cotton production," the encrypted message read.
"Spreading such rumor is to defame China, destroy Xinjiang's safety and stability, weaken local economy, suppress China's development." Wang posted the article within minutes and made changes to the posting at the direction of a Chinese government official over the next several months, according to papers filed in LA federal court. Additional evidence in the federal case included a November 2021 communication between Wang and John Chen, "a high-level member of the PRC intelligence apparatus, who regu-
larly attended elite Chinese Communist Party functions, including military parades, and met personally with PRC President Xi Jinping," according to court documents. "Wang asked Chen to post a 'news' article from her website, and wrote, 'This is what the Ministry of Foreign Affairs wants to send.'” Chen was sentenced in November 2024 to 20 months in federal prison after pleading guilty in the Southern District of New York to acting as an illegal agent of the Chinese government and conspiracy to bribe a public official. Wang released a state-
See Ex-Arcadia mayor Page 31
epublican Steve Hilton and Democrat Xavier Becerra appeared Wednesday to be heading for a November runoff election, outdistancing a large field of competitors in the state's gubernatorial primary. With returns still being counted statewide, Hilton had 1,386,966 votes, or 27.8%, as of Wednesday morning, while Becerra received 1,267,070 votes, or 25.4%, according to the California Secretary of State's Office. Democrat and billionaire hedge fund manager Tom Steyer was third with 979,007 votes, or 19.6%, followed by Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco with 566,679, or 11.3%. It was unclear Wednesday morning how many ballots remain to be tallied from Tuesday's election. The vote totals were expected to be updated repeatedly in the coming days, with many pundits predicting the later ballots to skew towards Democrats, likely resulting in Becerra ultimately finishing first in the race. The race to succeed termed-out Gov. Gavin Newsom has been a lively one, but the campaign in recent days appeared to boil down to a toss-up among Hilton, Becerra and Steyer, and Tuesday night's results showed that scenario playing out. Becerra had surged in recent polls, with Hilton and Steyer trailing right behind. Hilton saw a boost in support, moving past Bianco, after being endorsed by President Donald Trump in April. Hilton has urged voters to
back his bid for governor to avoid the possibility of being locked out of the November election by two Democrats. Hilton has spent most of his career as a political strategist and observer. He worked for former British Prime Minister David Cameron, after which he moved to California, where he's resided for close to 15 years. Hilton has made tax reductions, spending limits and curbs on bureaucratic red tape some of his central campaign themes. Hilton spoke to his supporters Tuesday night in Huntington Beach, standing on a stage with the words "Change is Coming" behind him. "I thought, is that a little premature to write the words `change is coming'?" he said. "I don't think so, because change is coming. Change is coming to California. Change is coming to California and it's long overdue." He added, "It looks very much as if Californians really will have the chance to vote for change in November and take our state in a new direction, a fresh start for our state, which is long overdue. But I just want to say something to every single person who voted for me, and every single person who voted in this election, whether you voted for me or not. I am here for you, for every single one of you." Hilton has leveled sharp criticism at Becerra over a campaign finance scandal involving two of the candidate's employees caught
See Governor race Page 09