California Mayor’s Guilty Plea Reveals China’s Infiltration of US, Analysts Say

‘Wang is far from the only asset to have embedded herself in U.S. institutions,’ one analyst said.

Arcadia City Council member Eileen Wang attends the Asian Hall of Fame 2023 induction ceremony at Biltmore Los Angeles in Los Angeles on Oct. 21, 2023. Frazer Harrison/Getty Images

A guilty plea by a California mayor has exposed Beijing’s campaign to use domestic elections as a way to shape political outcomes in the United States, and experts warn that the threat will only deepen.

Eileen Wang, mayor of Arcadia, California, was charged with acting as an illegal agent of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), the Department of Justice said on May 11.