Since May, the resignation of former Mayor Eileen Wang after pleading guilty to acting as an agent for China has stirred distrust and tension in the city known as “the Chinese Beverly Hills.”
Months later, the ripple effects of the Wang scandal have spilled into public view anew on the City Council dais, where issues over trust and the force of past political fractures have combined for a tense march into election season.
The most recent example was Tuesday, Oct. 20, when a tension-filled City Council meeting focused on whether Councilmember Sharon Kwan’s ties to Chinese Texas oil company Shandong Xinchao Energy Corp. violated foreign-interest laws.
Fellow council members grilled Kwan, the city’s first Asian American woman to become its mayor, on those ties in a hearing Kwan herself called for.
It was a clash among leaders that ended with no official action, but led to current tensions and hints of deep cracks in the city’s politics that predated Wang’s departure.
Kwan, who is running for reelection in District 2, said her membership on the company’s board was of no concern to people in Arcadia, arguing she receives no compensation, no ownership interest and that the company is partially owned by Americans.
Shandong Xinchao Energy Corp. Ltd. is a China-based company in the Permian Basin, a huge swath of petroleum-producing land in Texas. Working on exploration, development and sales of oil and natural gas, the company’s oil and gas assets are low-sulfur, light, crude oil and associated natural gas.
Kwan called Tuesday’s meeting last month after a flyer pointing out her ties to the energy company circulated on social media, triggering scrutiny among residents still grappling with Wang’s actions.
“I proposed that we investigate and discuss all council members’ foreign ties,” Kwan told her colleagues from the dais. “The public doesn’t trust us. They want answers. Even though you guys won’t provide answers, I have nothing to hide.”
She later told the Southern California News Group that she was nominated to the board by fellow members with whom she was real estate investment partners in Texas. Her responsibilities on the energy company, which is comprised of 300 American employees, focus on assuring that shareholders’ profits are healthy and offer business recommendations accordingly.
She said she “doesn’t take a dime.”
Kwan explained during the council meeting that she hadn’t disclosed the relationship earlier because in filing her statement of economic interest, as is required by every elected official, she said she was asked only to divulge her financial interests in Arcadia.
“The Texas Oil Company is not in Arcadia and they do not do business in Arcadia,” Kwan said. “No offense to the city, but our annual city budget is less than a percent of this company’s net worth. The energy company in Texas has nothing to do with our people.”
That the company was involved in a since-settled legal action last year was another subject of discussion led by Councilmember David Fu. He said that her lawyers’ statements contradicted her claims that the company is partially U.S. owned.
Fu also said that recent litigation against the energy company in which Kwan was named as a defendant included lawyers’ statements suggesting the company was fully owned by Chinese entities.
“You realize that the answer that they made on your behalf was verified by you,” Fu said. “So the statements that they made there, that it was 100% owned by a Chinese company, those would be statements that you have stood by in a court plead in Delaware chancery court?”
Kwan responded that the lawsuit was referring to a transaction between a fellow Chinese entity that exclusively purchased the Chinese-owned portion.
Councilmember John Han, who is running for reelection in District 3 and was appointed to the City Council this year to replace Wang, also noted Chinese company laws’ adherence to the Chinese communist party and “overall national security concept.”
Fu underlined those concerns.
“Under Chinese law, you have a duty to the Chinese communist party due to your role in these companies,” Fu said.
Fu added that Kwan hadn’t furnished sufficient evidence of ethical foreign relationships, and questioned her expertise in the oil energy sector.
“Some people might find that hard to accept when it’s just based on your word,” Fu said. “We live in a time where people have been throwing suspicion on people that look like you and people that look like me. They don’t just want to take our word.”
Kwan, one of the first Asian-American women to be elected to the Arcadia City Council, pushed back against the suggestions that her work had close ties to the communist party and pointed to her son, a consultant for the U.S. Defense Department, whose security clearance by the CIA was sufficient evidence of having “clean” foreign relationships.
“You ask for evidence – well I think the CIA has a lot of evidence on me,” Kwan said. “Why don’t you go and ask the CIA to give it to you. I don’t believe that my son would be able to give advice to our department of defense if he has a mother that has any ties with the CCP government.”
Calling her family connection to the CIA as both “mythical” and a “deflection,” Fu said her proof was still lacking.
“What I am trying to say is that you asked for the opportunity to explain yourself, you’re saying a lot of things for which there is no documentary evidence, and I think that that does not quite reach the point of being persuasive,” Fu said.
Calling Fu’s concern petty, Kwan suggested that business relationships with foreign entities are not inherently contrary to U.S. interests but can be supportive of them.
“[We can] continue to expand our economy by using foreign administration,” Kwan said. “Those are the things that are the big scope of this country. That doesn’t happen on the city level.”
The inquiry into Kwan’s financial advice to the company is reflective of a City Council wary of foreign interference, after Wang pleaded guilty to federal felony charges of secretly working to illegally promote the interests of China prior to her election to the City Council back in 2022.
Wang’s federal sentencing was postponed from Oct. 6 to Jan. 12.
Arcadia has embarked on what officials say is a pioneering effort to establish protocols aimed at protecting local municipalities from such influence.
Arcadia’s governing body was quick to note Wang’s wrongdoings as spelled out by the federal government happened before she was elected to the City Council in November 2022.
A review of Wang’s communications during her tenure in office revealed “no evidence that city systems, equipment, or resources were used to facilitate the conduct described in the federal case against Mrs. Wang,” the city said in a statement.
But the episode gave way to further foreign influence concerns when in July, in nearby West Covina, FBI agents served search warrants at the home and business of James Su, the media executive who, public records show, donated to Wang’s 2022 campaign for Arcadia City Council.
Su, the founder and president of EDI Media Inc., is an American citizen who has donated to political campaigns across the political spectrum. His business, based in West Covina, bills itself as the largest Chinese-American multimedia company in the U.S.
While the FBI has released little information about the probe, and Su was not charged with any crime, the July 29 operation also included warrant searches at the homes and offices of powerful Inland Empire public officials, including San Bernardino County Supervisor Curt Hagman, Ontario City Councilmember Alan Wapner, and former Ontario Planning Commissioner Frank Lizarraga.
Kwan, a mother of four, is no newcomer to local politics, according to her bio on the city’s website.
A graduate of UC Riverside, her city biography notes that she was among “very few women of color” to blaze a path in the financial services industry in the 1990s.
Her service would include the presidency of Arcadia’s Rancho Santa Anita Property Owners Association for 10 years, while also serving on the boards of the USC Arcadia Foundation and the Downtown Arcadia Improvement Association.
But her tenure on the council has been marked by notable moments and clashes with Fu and Councilmember Michael Cao, including in 2025, when the City Council censured her, while allowing her to retain her duties and powers as mayor, pending a further vote from her colleagues, if they deem future conduct unacceptable.
Talk of censure had first arose during a regular city council meeting last year.
By the time the censure vote came in September of last year, allegations against Kwan, led by Fu, ranged from relying on Chat GPT to write speeches, to conspiring to weaponize high school students to speak in support of her.
It was nothing new. Since Kwan’s swearing in as mayor the April before, City Council infighting had become common, with councilmembers and Kwan butting heads over the city’s budget, emails described as “sarcastic” and allegations of sexism.
The infighting has become a talking point on the campaign trail, with three seats, including Kwan’s and Cao’s, on the ballot.
“Accountability should never become an excuse for hostility, suspicion, or judgment,” said Grace Arabella Lee, who along with Cynthia Ng Monje, is running to unseat incumbent John Han, who was appointed to the City Council this year to replace Wang. Lee, responding to the Southern California News Group questionnaire for the group’s Voter Guide, said “we can insist upon integrity while still treating every person with dignity, fairness, empathy, and compassion. We must not lose our humanity when controversy touches our community. Arcadia should rise above fear and denunciation.”
Others have taken a more pointed tone, as it relates to the Wang scandal and the broader issue of foreign influence.
Burton Brink, who is running against incumbent Kwan, said — also in response to questions for the Voter Guide — public trust took a hit in the wake of FBI raids and federal charges, as residents questioned whether City Hall was putting politics ahead of telling the truth.
Brink said he would support an independent forensic audit of city records, emails and money, “so residents can see what happened and what went wrong,” he responded in the Voter Guide. Second, he would push for stronger ethics rules, clearer disclosure and regular public reports. Finally, Brink said the city needs civility on the City Council dais again.
In District 5, Steve Rhee is running against incumbent Cao. He told the Southern California News Group in the Voter Guide responses that “we just can’t ‘move on’ until we make sure that we have implemented policies to make sure an agent of a Foreign Government never gets elected and rises to mayor again.”
Kwan said when concerns about Wang’s ties to China arose she proposed a City Council discussion about whether Wang should step down, but she said she was voted down by her colleagues.
“I twice proposed an independent review of all council members’ financial and foreign ties. Both requests were blocked,” Kwan said in a text message to the Southern California News Group. “Then, I proposed a discussion of my own financial ties — because if my District 2 constituents could not trust their council, at least they could trust me.”
Among public commenters on Tuesday was Arcadia accountant Domenico Tallerico, who in addition to voicing praise solely of Kwan, told the San Gabriel Valley Tribune that the council had reached a newfound level of disorder.
“The city of Arcadia has never needed a code of conduct until this group got on City Council. That’s over 100 years. I’m not aware of city councils that have this code of conduct emphasis the way these guys do,” Tallerico said.
By Friday, Kwan appeared to remain welcoming of the entire debate.
“I want to lead by example and have other council members and the public question me,” she said in an interview Friday. “I am fighting for transparency in our city council.”
Amancai Biraben is a correspondent with the Southern California News Group. Reporting from staff writers David Wilson, Anissa Rivera and Victoria Le contributed to this report.