los angeles — In 2024, voters in the Southern California city of Arcadia elected the first all-Asian city council in the city’s history.
Now, one of those politicians has pleaded guilty to being an illegal agent of the Chinese government. Call from former Arcadia Mayor Ellen Wang, entered federal court on Friday, The story continues, which some area residents fear could bring unfair scrutiny on the broader Chinese and Asian American community.
Arcadia has seen rapid demographic change in the past two decades, as immigrants from China, Taiwan and Hong Kong flocked to the San Gabriel Valley east of Los Angeles. After Wang’s case was announced on May 11, the news made national headlines and filled the city’s modest suburbs with anger, disappointment and whispers of quiet concern. On social media, concerns abound about spies and the influence of the Chinese Communist Party.
“We cannot allow this moment to become an excuse for people to paint entire communities with one brush or use race as a weapon for political gain,” Acting Mayor Paul Cheng said in a statement.
Wang agreed in April to plead guilty to following orders from Chinese officials by sharing pro-Beijing articles on a news website she ran, without notifying the US government as required by law.
The 56-year-old was elected in November 2022 to the five-person city council, from which the mayor is chosen on a rotating basis. She was born in Chengdu, China, and immigrated to the United States in 1995.
The San Gabriel Valley is home to the largest concentration of residents of Chinese and Taiwanese descent in the United States. Beginning in the 1970s, real estate developers marketed the area as “Chinese Beverly Hills” to attract wealthy immigrants. As the population grows, it becomes a haven for new immigrants who can go about their lives without the need for English, access job opportunities, and avoid putting their children through China’s highly competitive education system. Arcadia has a population of about 53,000 people, the majority of whom are Asian, like many other cities in the region.
Ted Tseng, 52, arrived in Arcadia from Taiwan nearly 40 years ago with his parents, who immigrated because they feared potential conflict between Taiwan and China.
Zeng was concerned that the indictment against Wang would deepen hostility against Asian Americans and discredit their contributions to the region. Fears of anti-Asian racismAlthough hate crimes have decreased since the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, they still persist.
“I’m just worried that our image has been damaged,” Zeng said.
The US Department of Justice has intensified its efforts in recent years to combat this phenomenon Chinese espionage. In April, a man was accused of running a… Secret Chinese spy website In the Chinatown neighborhood of Manhattan Convicted By acting as an illegal foreign agent.
Wang indicated that she had been misled by her former fiancé, Yaoning “Mike” Sun plead guilty He was charged with the same charge last year and is now serving a four-year prison sentence. Sun was treasurer of Wang’s 2022 election campaign.
A statement published by Wang’s lawyers refers to her “trust and love for the wrong person that ultimately led her astray.”
Wang and Sun lived together, and Sun accompanied Wang wherever she went, said April Ferlato, a former city councilwoman who worked with Wang.
Ferlato said Wang should have stepped down as soon as she was investigated.
“She was selfish, she was sworn in as mayor and she didn’t resign when she knew she was going to plead guilty to something,” Ferlato said.
Jin Sun, a longtime lawyer at Arcadia, agreed.
“I don’t understand how she could have continued to be a city council member,” he said.
Wei Li, a professor of Asian Pacific American studies at Arizona State University, said it is not surprising that the Chinese government is trying to exert its political influence in the region, especially in light of the increasing political tension and economic competition between China and the United States in recent years.
“A lot of countries, if they have the will and if they have the means, will try to influence their citizens in the diaspora,” he told me.
According to his federal criminal complaint, Sun had been in contact with him John Chenwho also pleaded guilty to being an illegal agent of the Chinese government, regarding local politicians whom Beijing could influence. In reports to Chinese officials, Sun and Chen described Wang as the “new political star” and boasted of her contacts with key American politicians.
They also wrote about fighting “anti-China forces” such as Taiwan independence and Falun Gong, an anti-communist spiritual movement in exile.
In a January 2023 letter from Chen to Wang, which was referenced in Sun’s criminal complaint, Chen said: “You are doing a good job, and I hope you can continue the good work, and make the Chinese people proud.”
Cheng, the city’s acting mayor, said news of her guilty plea was not only a “slap in the face”, but the reaction from some community members was also painful.
Some residents at a City Council meeting on May 19 blamed the remaining council members for enabling Wang and called for their resignations.
“I’ve been called more names and told to go back to China even though that’s not where I belong,” said Cheng, who came to the United States from Taiwan when he was 2 years old.
For many Arcadia residents and workers, it was life as usual the day after the news broke. Many smiled apologetically when asked about this issue, saying they did not care about politics.
Alisa Mo, who immigrated from China six years ago to educate her children, said she initially thought the headlines must be exaggerated.
“A lot of people wondered if this was discrimination,” she said.
When she learned of the charge to which Wang pleaded guilty, she changed her mind.
“I think it’s inappropriate for anyone to do something like that,” she added.