Residents are demanding that Arcadia City Councilmember Eileen Wang resign amid revelations her fiancé and campaign treasurer allegedly acted as an operative of the People’s Republic of China in a clandestine, grassroots plot to influence U.S. politicians.
The FBI’s Dec. 19 arrest of Yaoning “Mike” Sun, 64, of Chino Hills as a suspected foreign government agent raises the question of whether Wang, elected to the Arcadia City Council in 2022, is the shadowy “Individual 1” described in a federal criminal complaint as a “new political star” courted by the PRC.
Although it isn’t clear if Wang, 55, was aware of Sun’s alleged work advancing the Chinese Communist Party’s anti-Taiwanese policies, clearly the optics aren’t favorable.
The same day that Sun was arrested, Arcadia city officials learned of an FBI presence in the 1000 block of Huntington Drive, which, according to public records, is where Wang lives.
Additionally, filings submitted before Arcadia’s 2022 municipal election listed Sun as Wang’s campaign treasurer, although the criminal complaint describes him as her campaign manager.
Probe ‘raises concerns’
“The investigation naturally raises concerns and questions about the extent of Sun’s involvement locally and throughout the region,” Arcadia City Manager Dominic Lazzaretto said in a statement on the city’s website. “At this time, Sun’s involvement is considered an isolated incident, with no known association with other members of the Arcadia City Council. Importantly, we can confirm that Sun had no involvement whatsoever with City of Arcadia business or decision-making.”
In Los Angeles Superior Court documents responding to a defamation suit from former American Southwest Chamber of Commerce Chief Executive Officer Michelle Wu, Wang acknowledged that Sun is her fiancé.
Wang and Sun operated the chamber to “promote the success of Chinese community small businesses,” according to filings with the Internal Revenue Service.
Additionally, Wang serves as chief executive officer and Sun is chief financial officer of U.S. News Service, a Chinese-language media company in Arcadia.
After she was sworn into office on Dec. 6, 2022, Wang gave a shout-out to Sun during a City Council meeting for “walking the streets” with her during her campaign, being her “real leader” and giving her confidence to “fight for the next generation.”
Despite their close professional and personal ties, it’s unlikely Wang knew of the extent of Sun’s alleged role with the United Front Work Department of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party, said Dennis Craig Wilder, a former senior U.S. intelligence official and currently a professor at Georgetown University.
“But she would almost certainly have understood his pro-Beijing proclivities given his reported public activities that certainly promoted US-China ties at the local level,” he said in an email.
Wang has spoken to the FBI but hasn’t been charged with a crime and has agreed to cooperate with the ongoing investigation involving Sun, Lazzaretto said.
Residents demand resignation
The relationship between Wang and Sun is a hot topic in an Arcadia community Facebook group, where several people have demanded that she immediately step down from the City Council.
“Eileen Wang should resign as a romantic association with an alleged Chinese spy is not only suspicious, but quite plainly traitorous!” one individual said in a post. “If she doesn’t resign, then the city council should take a vote of no confidence and direct her to resign from office.”
Another individual posted, “Fiancé, boyfriend on her payroll?” and “They are connected.”
Wang did not respond to a request for comment regarding whether she plans to step down.
Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Lin Jian said during a Dec. 20 news conference he was unfamiliar with Sun’s criminal case. “What I want to emphasize is that China never interferes in the internal affairs of other countries,” he told reporters. “The international community can see clearly who is wantonly interfering in other countries’ internal affairs.”
Influence peddling on rise
Efforts by the PRC to infiltrate and influence U.S. politics have risen sharply in recent years, with many officials elected to national offices wary of getting close to individuals representing Chinese interests due to frequent FBI and CIA security briefings, Wilder said.
Nationally, Chinese operatives have been linked to New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, the late Sen. Dianne Feinstein and U.S. Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-Castro Valley. But now local officials seem to increasingly be targets of Chinese political influence peddlers.
“Beijing has decided that its best route for gaining influence within the US political system is to work locally across the 50 states,” Wilder said. “States, such as California and New York, are particularly attractive targets because of their large ethnic Chinese communities. Local officials are not routinely briefed on the Chinese espionage threat and are only now beginning to understand the extent of the effort.”
The House Committee on Oversight and Accountability released a report in October detailing what federal agencies are doing — and failing to do — to defend against the Chinese Communist Party’s “unrestricted warfare.”
Also, in 2022, the National Counterintelligence and Security Center issued a warning describing a range of techniques to influence leaders at the national, state and federal levels.
“PRC foreign influence activities can be overt, such as public diplomacy where the role of the PRC government is open and unobscured,” the warning states. “They can also be covert, where the PRC government’s role is hidden, as well as coercive or even criminal in nature.”
Influence tactics common
Sun allegedly employed many of the same PRC tactics that U.S. intelligence officials have long been concerned about.
He is accused of conspiring with Chen Jun, 71, who was sentenced to 20 months federal prison in November for acting as an illegal agent of the PRC amid a bribery plot to target U.S.-based practitioners of Falun Gong, a spiritual practice banned in China.
Sun previously served in the Chinese government’s People’s Liberation Army. In a probable-cause affidavit, prosecutors said they have uncovered photos of Sun and Chen in Chinese military uniforms.
Chen allegedly was in frequent contact with Sun, whom he instructed to submit reports on Individual 1’s election that he could provide to top officials with the United Front Work Department. Chen instructed Sun in early 2023 to write up a report for Chinese officials describing “you and me cultivating and assisting [Individual 1’s] success,” according to the affidavit.
In a February 2023 draft of Sun’s report, Sun described his personal background and his history of working against “Chinese secessionist forces.” Additionally, he boasted that “most proudly of all, during the 2022 U.S. midterm elections, I orchestrated and organized my team to win the election for city council member candidate (Individual 1).”
In subsequent communications detailed in the affidavit, Chen instructed Sun to include a section on Individual 1, who had connections to other prominent politicians. The affidavit also states that Chen and Sun discussed their “past struggle fighting Taiwanese independence forces … over the years and fighting ‘FLG’ (Falun Gong) influences” in a California city.
In February 2023, Sun and Chen drafted a second report to PRC officials that requested an $80,000 budget to fund additional pro-PRC activities and to combat “anti-China forces” in the United States, the affidavit showed.
After Chen discussed a planned trip to the PRC with Sun to meet with “leadership,” and he directed Sun to schedule a meeting with the Chinese consul general in Los Angeles, Sun and Individual 1 traveled to China in late August 2023.
Playing ‘the long game’
The campaign to prop up Individual 1 seems to be a classic tactic used by the PRC, according to Wilder.
“Some call it the thousand grains of sands approach to intelligence activities and they do play the long game,” he said. “They are willing to invest the resources in operations targeting young politicians that may not pay off for decades.”
Wilder added that novice politicians often do not understand the espionage threat and, therefore, are relatively easy to manipulate into pro-China activities that appear on the surface to be benign.
“There may well be hundreds of co-optees, like Sun, at the local levels seeking influence on behalf of the Communist Party,” he said.
Staff writer Teresa Liu contributed to this report.