Bill Essayli, the First Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Central District of California, posted on social media platform X that FBI agents in Los Angeles nabbed 34-year-old Wanying “Heather” Zhang of Irvine, Calif., as she was attempting to depart for China.
FBI Director Kash Patel appeared to laud the arrest on social media. “Foreign adversaries take note: America is no longer a safe place to run your espionage operations,” Patel wrote. “Allegedly surveil a foreign leader’s family on U.S. soil for [China]—and try to catch a flight back to Shanghai? Not happening.”
“Our country expresses the strongest condemnation of such barbaric conduct that disregards human rights and the sovereignty of nations,” the spokesperson said.
During Chinese President Xi Jinping’s recent state visit to the U.S., President Trump said of the topic: “We didn’t spend a lot of time talking about Taiwan.”
While the American public’s view of China has improved, and even as Beijing makes diplomatic overtures to the Trump Administration, many in Washington remain hawkish against the U.S.’s geopolitical rival. The latest report from the U.S. Congressional-Executive Commission on China continues to warn about Beijing’s transnational repression activities, including intimidation and the targeting of Hong Kongers, Uyghurs, Tibetans, Taiwanese figures, and other Chinese dissidents.
What U.S. authorities are alleging
Authorities filed a criminal complaint against Zhang in federal court, CBS News and Fox News reported, with an affidavit from an FBI special agent.
“She was conducting surveillance on behalf of the Chinese government," Essayli told Fox News. “And she was spying on a relative of the President of Taiwan here in the U.S.”
Under federal law, those who act as agents for other nations without prior notification to the U.S. Attorney General may face up to 10 years in prison, fines, or both.
The complaint does not name the victim, but CBS News reported, citing unidentified law enforcement sources, that the target was Ting-yu Lai, the son of Taiwanese President Lai.
“If [China] were to wish to obtain leverage over the President of Taiwan during any potential conflict, the location and pictures of the close relatives of a high-ranking Taiwanese government official, including pictures of their homes and cars, could be useful to [China],” the FBI special agent wrote.
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