this post was submitted on 30 May 2026
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A Southern California mayor has agreed to plead guilty to acting as an illegal agent for the Chinese government, and has resigned from her city position, officials said Monday.

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P.S. these fucking Tankies getting desparate enough to show up a lot on Lemmy World now that Piefed has helped people avoid the plague that ML is.

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[–] TropicalDingdong@lemmy.world 52 points 1 month ago (2 children)

This one of the weirdest ongoing stories right now. Mostly because she isn't even denying it.

She's just like, straight guilty plea, yeah I did it, it was me, I'm the secret agent. Doesn't she understand American politics? You're supposed to just deny, delay, defer until you get to the next election cycle.

[–] shirasho@feddit.online 35 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Better to be imprisoned here than executed in China. It seems like weird politicking to just come out and admit your crime, but sometimes that is actually better than being sent back to or dealing with your home country.

[–] LadyButterfly@reddthat.com 4 points 1 month ago

Ahhhhh that's a good point

[–] FiniteBanjo@feddit.online 14 points 1 month ago

Well, she did deny it at first last year, but when it came time to plea she chose guilty. It could still be China's plan, though, as it is sparking the flames of Racial and Political divide in California, right now.

[–] nymnympseudonym@piefed.social 21 points 1 month ago (2 children)

Can someone please open an investigation on this person?

https://www.lilytangwilliams.com/

She perennially runs for US Congress and claims to have "fled communism for the freedom of the United States"... and is a huge Trump supporter

[–] CoolSouthpaw@lemmy.world 5 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Damn. Her merch is really something else.

Even if she's not a Chinese spy, she should still be investigated for being batshit insane.

[–] nymnympseudonym@piefed.social 6 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Holy crap I never perused her merch

yx4MvAs4WRlelVP.jpeg

[–] WizardofFrobozz@lemmy.ca 0 points 1 month ago

This rules though.

[–] RememberTheApollo_@lemmy.world 3 points 1 month ago (1 children)

The Chinese want the US to disintegrate so they can be the primary world power. They’re well on their way to getting their wish.

[–] nymnympseudonym@piefed.social 3 points 1 month ago (1 children)

If they get it, they'll only have it for about a decade.

Demographics is destiny and half the Chinese will die in the next 25 years.

[–] RememberTheApollo_@lemmy.world 1 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Nobody can see past the next 3-4 months. That’s a problem for then, not now.

[–] nymnympseudonym@piefed.social 1 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Demographers damn well can see a lot further than 3-4 months

China is at its maximum population right now and its Fertility rate is 1.0

https://ourworldindata.org/profile/population-demography/china

image

[–] RememberTheApollo_@lemmy.world 1 points 1 month ago

I’m not talking about demographers. Just regular people and businesses.

[–] AbouBenAdhem@lemmy.world 12 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Wang and Sun operated the news website U.S. News Center, aimed at the Chinese American community, and were instructed by Chinese government officials to post pro-PRC content on it.

So was she acting as a Chinese agent in her role as mayor, or just as the operator of a website posting PRC propaganda?

[–] FiniteBanjo@feddit.online 15 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (2 children)

Charges are for actions before her term as Mayor.

She took orders from the Chinese government and her election was aided by that adversarial nation, Sun was even on her campaign committee as Treasurer. That alone is more than enough grounds for these charges and is properly illegal.

Foreign agents, former or current, are barred from office by US Laws. Sun got 4 years, Wang is looking at 10.

[–] LePoisson@lemmy.world 6 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Man that's like nothing compared to what Trump and co got up to with Russia (why he was first impeached, I watched the whole trial and holy shit so much fucked up dealings were happening) ... It's kind of wild how one dude became president - twice 🤮 - and this lady is getting prosecuted.

That's justice for you. /s (which I shouldn't need because italicized can mean sarcasm but I'll put it just for all us special types)

[–] FiniteBanjo@feddit.online 6 points 1 month ago

Yeah, Trump should die in prison, no arguments there.

[–] greybeard@feddit.online 2 points 1 month ago (1 children)

As long as those foreign agents aren't from Israel or rich.

[–] FiniteBanjo@feddit.online 2 points 1 month ago

Technically, if you find a direct line of funding from Israel to AIPAC then you should come forward with that evidence because it is illegal, however it's not nearly as big a deal when a friendly or allied nation does is as when an Adversarial Nation, which is defined in US Federal Law, does it.

[–] Alcoholicorn@mander.xyz 10 points 1 month ago (3 children)

What were her policies? Was she trying to build HSR?

[–] FiniteBanjo@feddit.online 9 points 1 month ago

Technically all of her current crimes predate her time as Mayor of Arcadia, so the story doesn't have a whole lot to do with that, but to answer your question:

She was a part of the Arcadia Lion's Club and Arcadia Association of Realtors, meaning she likely promoted land development and sale to investors. She assumed office in 2025 and was removed from most responsibilities the same year as these allegations came forward and she denied them at first.

[–] ripcord@lemmy.world 3 points 1 month ago

Homestar Runner?

[–] AbouBenAdhem@lemmy.world 2 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Her Wikipedia page says she was a Republican until 2022 (the year she left the pro-PRC news site and joined the city council), but then switched parties.

[–] Dialectical_Specialist@quokk.au 4 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Could I get some details on that PS? What happened?

[–] FiniteBanjo@feddit.online 4 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

https://lemmy.world/comment/23997354

Just warning people that you might see some tankies in threads like this, so they can be prepared for it.

[–] mlg@lemmy.world 4 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I thought it was gonna be the ol' 20k cash for leaking government secrets but its actually a charge for forward posting PRC propaganda on her news site while acting in government lol.

It doesn't mention a plea bargain but I assume there's probably lessened repercussion for doing so, probably because the feds want to make an example as usual.

[–] FiniteBanjo@feddit.online 2 points 1 month ago

I'm assuming her collaborator, Sun, got only 4 years for a plea deal and now Wang is looking at 10, but only time will tell.

[–] daannii@lemmy.world 3 points 1 month ago (3 children)
[–] mysticpickle@lemmy.ca 17 points 1 month ago (1 children)

The Lemmy.ml instance. If you see anyone with a @lemmy.ml after their name, there's a better than 50% chance they think North Korea is a pretty cool palace :>

[–] becausechemistry@piefed.social 14 points 1 month ago (2 children)

And that both sides of the current US political divide are exactly the same, yep, exactly the same. The really boring ones who are kinda slow to get with the times and then the ones who are destroying the institutions of government as fast as legally possible and also faster than legally possible. Yep. The same.

[–] daannii@lemmy.world 4 points 1 month ago

Oh I've met those. Honestly they are so absurd it's hard to not think it's sock puppet accounts.

[–] Cris_Citrus@piefed.zip 3 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (2 children)

In all fairness "kinda slow to get with the times" is at least a slight underrepresentation of how culpable democrats are for the current political moment 😅

They are not the same. And they are also clearly almost exclusively accountable to their donors, and for a very hot minute now have done nothing to meaningfully adress the countries class-based dysfunction (that disproportionately impacts minorities) while championing minorities in almost exclusively superficial ways that have laid the groundwork for the current cataclysmic anti-inclusionary social movement thats feeding our rapid decent into neo-fascism.

Slow to get with the times is more than just being charitable. They kinda suck. They are not a monolith, no group is, but there is good reason why people call them controlled opposition. I'd like for people to be wrong about that and for them to fix their shit. Because fixing the Democratic party still feels easier than uprooting the deeply entrenched two party system, and there are candidates that make me hopeful... But I'm not holding my breath :/

[–] FiniteBanjo@feddit.online 1 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

The DNC have had 48 or less senators for over 13 years and have never held a SCOTUS appointee majority. They are more progressive now than they've ever been, I highly recommend you read their party platform document, do you need a link to it?

[–] Cris_Citrus@piefed.zip -2 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I don't say this to try and be a dick, I think its important to be able to have discussions around these topics, but a party's platform document really is not important to me. Their voting record is. Their actions are. And the more I learn about politics the more their voting record and actions the last 10-20 years frustrate me.

I will 1000% give credit it to Lina Khan. She was a godsend and gave me hope that maybe the american political apparatus could actually be operated in good faith by someone who understands what it means to be a civil servant.

When we did last had a senate majority under Obama he failed to pass a more impactful healthcare reform bill. And we got a version that he said was essentially just Mitt Romney's healthcare bill. I have personally benefited from obamacare. And, we had the opportunity to pass something much more meaningful. And we just didnt.

Democratic foreign policy is horrifying. One of my closest friends is part of an ethnic and religious minority group that was subjected to ethnic cleansing after Obama backed a militant group controlling Egypt because it was momentarily convenient to our interests. If I remember right the statistics she told me were that the population dropped from something like 15% to 5% in a matter of a few years. Because of it she went into intelligence research (as an academic, not working for the government) and now lives with the imagery of people (often her people) being executed burned into her head because she specialized in propaganda and recruitment materials made by radical Islamic terror groups, and lots of radical Islamic terrorist groups love using video of executions and beheadings as recruitment material. She left the field because she can't do it anymore.

We outright refused to engage with the fact that Israel is intentionally killing an entire civilian population as an issue lots of people care about last election. We still aren't even all on the same page about it.

It feels like they have done nothing but present themselves as progressive without actually doing any of the progressive shit that would fix people's problems. Every time we've gotten a genuinely progressive candidate the party's response has been to degrade them and try to undercut their efforts.

And frankly, I think we could have had a much stronger hold of the legislature if we actually put forward candidates that folks believed cared about their issues on any kind of regular basis, instead of just people taking lots of corporate campaign funding and posturing about how much we care about minorities without putting forward policies that would help said minorities in any meaningful way

There are probably meaningful accomplishments that the democratic party has accomplished that I'm blind or ignorant to, and you're welcome to inform me of them. I'd like to have a more well rounded perspective. And at the same time, I don't think its unreasonable of me to be angry with them. They have taken a frankly ungodly amount of corporate money. The DNC's document outlining what went wrong last election was an actual joke, that blamed their loss on voters.

Sorry for the ridiculously long reply. A lot of my thoughts on this subject are still ill-formed and inconcrete enough to be difficult to communicate concisely.

[–] FiniteBanjo@feddit.online 2 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

If your single policy vote depends on Israeli-Palestine relationships then you need to start voting DNC, because the GOP official stance from the mouth of Pete Hegseth, drunkard former fox news anchor and current head of the department of war, is "Death or Exodus" of every Palestinian. Trump bragged about delivering shipments of bombs that Biden withheld from Israel. Upon GOP taking control of the 3 branches, all food aid into Gaza stopped and has never recovered to Biden-era levels. If you don't vote DNC and promote the DNC then clearly you don't give a single solitary fuck about any lives lost, any suffering, in Palestine.

[–] Cris_Citrus@piefed.zip -1 points 1 month ago (1 children)

My brother in Christ I have voted straight ticket Democrat in every single election I have every participated in, which has been every single one I can. And your assumption that I'm a single issue voter makes me feel like you're making a lot of assumptions about who I am, which is frustrating

I am not a single issue voter. And I consistently show up and vote democrat. Please don't make the assumption that I fit into the caricature of "only cares about one issue and won't vote"

[–] FiniteBanjo@feddit.online 2 points 1 month ago (1 children)

And yet you're in here talking shit about them to everyone who will listen. Great job, asshole.

[–] Cris_Citrus@piefed.zip -1 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

Yes, I would like better representation than I have, and that means being willing to criticize the party's failings 😅

I don't thing the process of democracy really works if people just have blind allegiance to a party. I'm frustrated that my best choice has consistently let me down, that doesnt make me an asshole.

I'd very much like for them to fix their shit, I think defeating fascism depends on it, and that means recognizing the ways they've fallen short.

[–] FiniteBanjo@feddit.online 3 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

Well I would like better representation than the GO-fucking-P but about 6 or 7 Million People who were willing to vote for Joe Biden in 2020 decided to stay the fuck home in 2024. We can talk about which DNC are best after we remove the existential threats from power, maybe even get the DNC enough senate seats to overturn Citizens United.

Here is what I think: I think you're astroturfing. I don't think you give a fuck about progress, you want the GOP to stay in power.

[–] Cris_Citrus@piefed.zip -2 points 1 month ago

If we're at the part of the conversation where we accuse eachother of being a psyop or secretly pro-fascism because we disagree on how to solve our problems I think probably we're past any hope this might be a worthwhile conversation

You can take a look at my history if you really think that. I think the way I choose to engage with people leaves it pretty unambiguous whether I'm engaging with people in good faith. My previous main is @Cris_Color@lemmy.world if you think three months of history is a red flag of some sort.

Take care.

[–] FiniteBanjo@feddit.online 7 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Right now you're on Lemmy World, another instance is known as Lemmy ML. All of the Fediverse Instances are built to communicate with each other unless specifically blacklisted, which is common. Lemmy World uses the reddit-style forum framework called "Lemmy" which is developed by Lemmy ML admins and owners, which is problematic because they're "Tankies" who are well documented to think trans people are a western psyop, that the Russian invasion of Ukraine is justified, that North Korea is one of the most democratic and free nations on earth, and that there is no Uyghur Genocide but instead a large sudden "birthrate decline" specifically an only in Xinjiang.

I am on an instance which uses a framework called "Piefed" which is developed with different codebase by different people than Lemmy.

[–] daannii@lemmy.world 3 points 1 month ago

Yeah one told me it was feminism that caused trump to get elected.