An Irvine estate agent accused of carrying out surveillance for China on the son of Taiwan’s president has been arrested at Los Angeles International Airport, federal prosecutors said.
Wanying “Heather” Zhang, 34, was detained by the FBI on Sunday, October 4, 2026, as she prepared to board a flight to Shanghai. She faces a federal complaint alleging that she acted as an unregistered agent of the Chinese government.
Prosecutors allege that Zhang travelled to the Seattle area in September 2025 with an associate and monitored the family of Ting-Yu Lai, the US-based son of Taiwan’s president, Lai Ching-te.
According to the criminal complaint, the pair photographed and recorded the family outside their home before sending images, video and vehicle registration details to contacts linked to the Chinese government.
FBI Special Agent Kevin Holt said in an affidavit that Zhang appeared to have been in contact with at least two people she understood to be working for Beijing. Investigators allegedly recovered messages from her accounts in which she wrote that she had seen the target and was recording him.
The complaint claims Zhang was introduced to one of the officials through a former classmate from Beijing’s University of International Relations. She allegedly met the official in China in June 2025 before accepting the surveillance assignment.
Bill Essayli, the first assistant US attorney for the Central District of California, said Zhang had used measures intended to avoid detection and had not notified the US attorney general that she was acting on behalf of a foreign government.
“She was basically conducting espionage activities on an official who is related to the president of Taiwan,” Mr Essayli said.
He described the case as part of a wider Chinese effort to collect intelligence and cultivate influence among political figures in the United States, including members of Congress and local government officials.
Arrest at Los Angeles airport
Video obtained by local media showed Zhang being taken into custody at LAX. Mr Essayli said airports had become a significant focus for federal enforcement because agencies including the FBI, Transportation Security Administration, Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection operate there.
FBI director Kash Patel said on social media that the bureau was pursuing threats to US national security and warned foreign adversaries that the United States was no longer a safe place to conduct espionage operations.
Zhang was due to make her initial appearance in federal court in Los Angeles on Monday, October 5. The allegations have not been tested in court, and she is presumed innocent unless proven guilty.
