Wanying Zhang arrested at LAX for allegedly spying on Taiwan president's son

Federal agents arrested a Southern California real estate agent at Los Angeles International Airport on Sunday as she prepared to board a flight to Shanghai, accusing her of working as an unregistered Chinese spy who tracked the US-based son of Taiwan’s president.

Wanying "Heather" Zhang, 34, of Irvine, is charged with acting as an unregistered agent of a foreign government. Prosecutors say she and an accomplice travelled to Seattle last autumn to photograph and film Ting-Yu Lai, the son of Taiwanese President Ching-Te Lai, outside his home.

The FBI says the surveillance was designed to give Beijing leverage over the Taiwanese leader. Special Agent Kevin Holt wrote in a federal criminal complaint that having the locations and photographs of close relatives of top Taiwanese officials "could be useful to the PRC" during any potential conflict.

According to the complaint, Zhang and an associate flew from Las Vegas to Seattle on 1 September 2025, rented a black Nissan Rogue, and drove to Ting-Yu Lai’s suburban home. Security footage from a neighbour’s camera allegedly captured them filming Lai, his wife, and their young child as they arrived home that evening.

Investigators discovered the operation after obtaining a search warrant for Zhang’s iCloud account, which backed up her messages on the Chinese app WeChat. In one exchange, she allegedly texted her handler: "Saw him. Young male. It's that young one," followed by "I am videorecording" and the family's licence plate numbers.

The FBI claims Zhang’s recruitment began in June 2025 through a classmate from her alma mater, Beijing’s University of International Relations—an institution known for its close ties to China's Ministry of State Security. During a trip to China that month, Zhang allegedly met a government official in a private room in Changsha to receive her assignment. "I can take care of this thing," she later texted the official, according to court documents.

Zhang, a licensed California real estate agent with JC Pacific Capital, had built a seemingly normal life in Orange County. Her Zillow profile lists 130 home sales and listings in the Los Angeles area. Her husband and business partner, Edric Ding, told reporters he knew nothing about the arrest and declined to comment.

The target of her alleged surveillance, Ting-Yu Lai, is an engineer in his 30s who works for the Dutch electronics multinational Philips. He completed his doctorate at the University of Washington and lives quietly in the Seattle suburbs with his wife and their US-born son.

The arrest is the latest in a string of federal prosecutions targeting Chinese covert operations in California. In May, former Arcadia Mayor Eileen Wang was charged with acting as an illegal agent for Beijing, later pleading guilty to spreading Chinese government propaganda through a US-based blog.