An Irvine estate agent has been arrested at Los Angeles International Airport on suspicion of acting as an unregistered agent for China after allegedly surveilling the US-based son of Taiwan’s president, law enforcement sources said.
Wanying “Heather” Zhang, 34, was detained on Sunday shortly before she was due to board a flight from Los Angeles to Shanghai. She faces a charge of acting as an unregistered agent of a foreign government.
A criminal complaint filed in federal court alleges that Zhang and an unidentified accomplice travelled to Seattle in September 2025 and photographed the suburban home of Ting-Yu Lai, the son of Taiwan’s president, Ching-Te Lai.
Images from a neighbour’s security camera allegedly show the pair appearing to film Ting-Yu Lai, his wife and their child as they arrived at the property. The FBI said the images were matched to an address near Seattle owned by Mr Lai.
Investigators allege that Zhang sent messages to a Chinese government handler after the surveillance. The messages included: “Saw him. Young male. It’s that young one,” and “I am videorecording”, followed by two vehicle registration numbers.
The messages were allegedly obtained from a search warrant involving Zhang’s iCloud account. FBI Special Agent Kevin Holt wrote in the complaint that Zhang had been in contact with at least two people whom she appeared to acknowledge worked for the Chinese government.
The complaint alleges that Zhang was introduced to one of the officials in June 2025 by a former classmate from Beijing’s University of International Relations, which Mr Holt said had close ties to China’s Ministry of State Security. She allegedly met the official in a private room in Changsha during a trip to China and later wrote: “I can take care of this thing.”
On August 26, 2025, Zhang allegedly told the official she expected to be in Seattle the following week. The official replied: “Ok. Thank you for your hard work,” according to the complaint.
Mr Lai, an engineer in his 30s, studied and worked in the United States and has a young US-born son with his wife, Hsiao Chen. He now works for the Dutch electronics company Philips.
In the complaint, Mr Holt said information about the homes and vehicles of relatives of senior Taiwanese officials could potentially be used by China to gain leverage over Taiwan’s president during a conflict.
Zhang is a licensed California estate agent with JC Pacific Capital. Her husband, Edric Ding, who works at the same firm, said when contacted: “I don’t know anything yet,” and declined to comment further. It was not immediately clear whether Zhang had a lawyer.
Taiwan has long been at the centre of tensions with China, which claims the island as part of its territory while Taiwan asserts its independence. Taiwan is also a major centre for the manufacture of advanced semiconductor chips.
The case comes amid previous US prosecutions involving alleged Chinese operations targeting dissidents and pro-democracy activists. Shujun Wang was convicted in 2024 of acting as a covert agent for China’s Ministry of State Security after prosecutors said he had infiltrated and reported on a pro-democracy group in New York.
Two people were arrested in 2023 over an unofficial Chinese police station in Manhattan that prosecutors said was used to monitor Chinese dissidents. In California, former Arcadia mayor Eileen Wang was charged in May with acting as a Chinese agent and admitted being paid to distribute pro-Chinese government propaganda in the United States.
