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LOS ANGELES — <\/span>In 2024, voters in the Southern California city of Arcadia elected the first all-Asian city council in the city’s history.<\/p>\n Now, one of those politicians has pleaded guilty to being an illegal agent of the Chinese government. Former Arcadia Mayor Eileen Wang’s plea, entered in federal court Friday,<\/a> continues a saga that some residents of the area worry could bring unfair scrutiny on the broader Chinese and Asian American community.<\/p>\n Arcadia has gone under rapid demographic change in the last 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 made public May 11, the news made national headlines and filled the unassuming suburban city with anger, disappointment and murmurs of quiet concern. On social media, fears about spies and Chinese Communist Party influence abounded.<\/p>\n \u201cWe cannot allow this moment to become an excuse for people to paint entire communities with one brush or weaponize ethnicity for political gain,\u201d acting Mayor Paul Cheng said in a statement.<\/p>\n Wang agreed in April to plead guilty to doing the bidding of Chinese officials by sharing articles favorable of Beijing on a news website she ran, without notifying the U.S. government as required by law. <\/p>\n The 56-year-old was elected in November 2022 to a five-person City Council, from which the mayor is selected on a rotating basis. She was born in Chengdu, China, and immigrated to the U.S. in 1995.<\/p>\n 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 region as \u201cChinese Beverly Hills\u201d to woo affluent immigrants. As the population grew, it became a haven for newer immigrants who could go about life without needing English, access business opportunities, and avoid putting their children through China\u2019s intensely competitive education system. Arcadia’s population of about 53,000 is majority Asian, like many other cities in the region.<\/p>\n Ted Tseng, 52, arrived in Arcadia from Taiwan nearly 40 years ago with his parents, who emigrated because they feared potential conflict between Taiwan and China.<\/p>\n Tseng was concerned Wang’s indictment would deepen animosity against Asian Americans and discredit their contributions to the region. Fears of anti-Asian racism<\/a>, though hate crimes are down since the COVID-19 pandemic, still linger.<\/p>\n \u201cI’m just worried our image has been damaged,\u201d Tseng said.<\/p>\n The U.S. Department of Justice has escalated efforts in recent years to combat Chinese espionage<\/a>. In April, a man accused of running a secret Chinese spy outpost<\/a> in Manhattan\u2019s Chinatown neighborhood was convicted<\/a> of acting as an illegal foreign agent.<\/p>\n Wang has suggested that she was misled by her former fiance, Yaoning \u201cMike\u201d Sun, who pleaded guilty<\/a> to the same charge last year and is now serving a four-year prison sentence. Sun was the treasurer for Wang\u2019s 2022 election campaign.<\/p>\n A statement shared by Wang’s lawyers references her “trust and love for apparently the wrong person who ultimately led her astray.\u201d<\/p>\n April Verlato, a former City Council member who served with Wang, said Wang and Sun lived together, and Sun accompanied Wang wherever she went.<\/p>\n Verlato said Wang should have stepped down as soon as she came under investigation.<\/p>\n \u201cShe was being selfish, getting sworn in as mayor and not resigning when she knew she was going to be pleading guilty to something,\u201d Verlato said.<\/p>\n Gene Sun, a long-time lawyer in Arcadia, agreed.<\/p>\n \u201cI don’t understand how she could have continued being a City Council member,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n It is not surprising that the Chinese government would attempt to exert political influence in the region, especially given the increased political tension and economic rivalry between China and the U.S. in recent years, said Wei Li, a professor of Asian Pacific American Studies at Arizona State University.<\/p>\n \u201cA lot of countries, if they have the will and if they have the means, will try to influence their diaspora,\u201d Li said.<\/p>\n