FBI agents arrested a 34-year-old Irvine, California woman at Los Angeles International Airport on Sunday, stopping her before she boarded a flight to Shanghai. Wanying Zhang, who also goes by Heather, is charged with acting as an unregistered agent of China — the latest case in the Justice Department's widening crackdown on alleged foreign influence operations on U.S. soil.
A federal criminal complaint signed October 3 alleges Zhang traveled to Seattle in September 2025 at the direction of Chinese officials, where she surveilled the U.S.-based son of Taiwan President Lai Ching-te — identified by the New York Post as Lai Ting-yu — photographing and filming him and his family and recording license-plate information. First Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli said Zhang used tradecraft to avoid detection.
Taiwan's presidential office condemned the case as 'typical transnational repression,' framing it as an attempt by Beijing to intimidate and monitor targets abroad. The case lands at an especially sensitive moment in U.S.-China-Taiwan relations, with Washington's commitments to Taiwan under constant scrutiny.
Zhang is due in federal court in Los Angeles on Monday. The charge — acting as an unregistered foreign agent — carries the possibility of years in federal prison if convicted, and prosecutors are expected to argue she remains a flight risk given the alleged ties to Chinese intelligence.
