LOS ANGELES — The FBI arrested a Southern California real estate agent at Los Angeles International Airport as she prepared to fly to China, accusing her of surveilling relatives of Taiwan’s president on U.S. soil at the direction of Chinese government officials.
Wanying Zhang, 34, of Irvine, who also goes by Heather, was arrested Sunday and charged with one count of acting in the United States as an unregistered agent of the People’s Republic of China, the Justice Department announced Monday. If convicted, she faces up to 10 years in federal prison. A criminal complaint is only an allegation, and she is presumed innocent.
What prosecutors allege
According to the complaint, Zhang traveled to China in June 2025, met with Chinese officials and was tasked with conducting surveillance in the United States. On Aug. 29, 2025, she and another person flew from John Wayne Airport in Orange County to Las Vegas, then on Sept. 1 to the Pacific Northwest, where the targets live, the Justice Department said.
Prosecutors say the pair went to the family’s home and watched it. Zhang allegedly messaged a Chinese official, “Saw him, young male, it’s the young one,” and when the official asked to join an audio call, replied that she was video recording. She also sent the license plate numbers of two vehicles parked outside, the department said.
The complaint does not name the target, but the FBI said on social media that it was the son of Taiwan’s president, the Associated Press reported. President Lai Ching-te’s elder son, Ting-Yu Lai, lives and works in the Seattle area as an engineer. An FBI affidavit said photos and the location of a top Taiwanese official’s close relatives could help China “obtain leverage” over him during any potential conflict, according to the AP.
‘Transnational repression’
Taiwan’s Presidential Office confirmed that Lai’s relatives were the targets, calling it “a classic case of transnational repression,” spokesperson Karen Kuo said in a statement reported by the AP.
“The complaint in this case lays bare a brazen plot directed by the Chinese government to conduct a covert surveillance mission on U.S. soil,” said Roman Rozhavsky, assistant director of the FBI’s Counterintelligence and Espionage Division. First Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli said Zhang “violated our laws and will be held accountable in our courts.”
The Chinese Embassy did not immediately respond to the AP, and the Foreign Ministry in Beijing was closed for a holiday.
Who she is
Zhang is a naturalized U.S. citizen and has been a licensed California real estate agent since 2016, the AP reported. An FBI affidavit says she attended Beijing’s University of International Relations, which the agent described as closely tied to China’s intelligence services, and stayed in touch with a classmate who became a Chinese government official. Her husband was at the federal courthouse in Los Angeles on Monday but declined to comment, and it was not immediately clear whether she had a lawyer.
Part of a broader crackdown
The case is the latest in a string of Justice Department prosecutions targeting alleged covert Chinese agents in the U.S., many involving harassment of dissidents. In May, Arcadia, California, Mayor Eileen Wang agreed to plead guilty to acting as an illegal agent of China and resigned, the AP reported.
The arrest came the same day Gov. Katie Hobbs helped open a new Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Phoenix, a move made despite letters of protest from China.
Photo: Voice of America via Wikimedia Commons (public domain). File photo of the Robert F. Kennedy Department of Justice Building in Washington, 2015.
Sources: U.S. Department of Justice; Associated Press (via WRAL).
This article was produced with AI assistance and is based on reporting from U.S. Department of Justice and Associated Press (via WRAL).