“By her own admission, Eileen Wang secretly served the interests of the Chinese government,” officials say. She was elected mayor of Arcadia in 2022 and has resigned.
Prosecutors said that Wang and Yaoning “Mike” Sun promoted “pro-PRC propaganda” in the U.S. through a website titled “U.S. News Center.” PRC refers to the People’s Republic of China.
Sun pleaded guilty in October to one count of acting as a foreign agent and is serving a four-year prison sentence, the U.S. attorney’s office said.
Wang’s plea agreement says she admits she acted as an agent of China’s government and did not notify the U.S. attorney general as required.
The agreement says Wang and Sun “received and executed directives from PRC government officials to post pro-PRC content on the website” and sometimes sought permission from Chinese government officials to post content.
Apparently there’s a separate count of bribery in this case, so yes. But you can be guilty of the foreign agent crime if you take direction from the foreign government, even if no money changes hands.