Information
Eileen Wang, the former mayor of Arcadia, California, has agreed to plead guilty to acting as an illegal foreign agent of China. From late 2020 to 2022, Wang and a man named Yaoning “Mike” Sun ran a website called U.S. News Center, which was used to spread pro-China content at the direction of Chinese government officials, while hiding those ties from the public. Wang resigned from her position hours after the plea agreement was made public by the Department of Justice, and she now faces up to 10 years in prison.
Experts say this case is part of a wider pattern of China attempting to recruit local and state level officials in the United States. Former intelligence officer Nicholas Eftimiades described it as a “whole of society approach,” where China targets politicians at a lower level with the hope that they will rise to more powerful positions over time. Other similar cases have surfaced in recent years, including a former New York state employee and a staffer in the office of former Senator Dianne Feinstein, both allegedly working on behalf of Chinese intelligence. Residents and officials in Arcadia say the case has been deeply unsettling for the local community.
Source: DOJ, NPR
So What
This case is a very interesting one and highlights the extent of Chinese intelligence influence in the US, though it is almost certain that this is not just a US problem, with China almost certainly conducting similar levels of intelligence collection across the rest of the globe. It also reveals some of China’s intelligence requirements and goals, showing a clear desire to understand US political information to a very granular level.
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