FBI arrests alleged Chinese agent who surveilled Taiwan president’s son at LAX
During his tenure, Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te has pledged to raise defense spending from 3% to 5% of GDP and is pushing a special budget for the construction of a T-Dome air defense system, the Guardian reported. The defense buildup comes as the FBI arrested Wanying Zhang, 34, at Los Angeles International Airport on October 4 for allegedly surveilling relatives of Lai on behalf of China.
Zhang, also known as Heather, was arrested as she was departing for a flight to China, federal prosecutors said. First Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli of the Central District of California announced the arrest on social media. According to Essayli, Zhang took photographs and videos of her targets and transmitted license-plate information to Chinese officials while in the United States. She is charged with acting as an agent of a foreign government without registering as required by law. According to the FBI, Zhang surveilled the Taiwanese president’s son and his family for the Chinese government.
Zhang was due to appear Monday in federal court in Los Angeles. Her nationality was not immediately clear, and it was not immediately known whether she had legal representation.
Citing real-estate licensing and listing records, the Los Angeles news outlet KTLA reported that Zhang was a licensed real-estate salesperson based in the southern California city of Irvine.
Taiwan’s presidential office confirmed that relatives of President Lai were the targets of the alleged surveillance. The office did not specify if it was the president’s son, saying instead that “this is a classic case of transnational repression.” Spokesperson Karen Kuo, in a statement, said Taiwan “condemns in the strongest terms such barbaric acts – which disregard human rights and national sovereignty and aim to suppress, threaten, or even harm individuals advocating for freedom and democracy or their families – as such behavior should not be tolerated in the civilized world.”
The Chinese Embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment, and Beijing’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs was closed for a national holiday.
Taiwan and China split after a civil war in 1949, but China continues to claim the island as part of its own territory. Lai, who was voted into office in 2024, has said Taiwan and China do not belong to each other, and that “the People’s Republic of China has no right to represent Taiwan.” China considers Lai a separatist and has called him a “destroyer of peace.”