IMAGE ‘DAMAGED’?
Ted Tseng, who emigrated to the US from Taiwan, was concerned the espionage case would deepen animosity against Asian Americans
AP, 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. Former Arcadia mayor Eileen Wang’s (王愛琳) plea, entered in federal court on Friday last year, continues a saga that some residents of the area worry could bring unfair scrutiny on the broader Chinese and Asian American community. Arcadia has gone under rapid demographic change in the past two decades as immigrants from Taiwan, China and Hong Kong flocked to the San Gabriel Valley east of Los Angeles. After Wang’s case was made public on 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.
Then-Arcadia mayor Eileen Wang speaks in Arcadia, California, on April 16.
