FBI arrests suspected Chinese agent at LAX after she allegedly monitored Taiwan president’s son

The FBI arrested a suspected Chinese agent at Los Angeles International Airport after she allegedly monitored the U.S.-based son of Taiwan’s president, law enforcement sources told CBS News.

Wanying “Heather” Zhang, a real estate agent from Irvine, California, was handcuffed by federal law enforcement on Sunday before boarding a flight to Shanghai, China, from LAX on charges of acting as an unregistered agent of a foreign government.

Zhang’s husband, Edric Ding, a real estate agent with the same company, told CBS News when contacted by phone Sunday, “I don’t know anything yet,” and declined to comment further.

It was not immediately clear whether Zhang had an attorney.

A criminal complaint, filed in federal court by a member of the FBI’s counterintelligence team in Los Angeles, accused Zhang and an accomplice of traveling to Seattle, Washington, in September 2025 and taking photos at the suburban home of the family of a senior Taiwanese official.

Police sources told CBS News the target was Ting-Yu Lai, the son of Taiwanese President Ching-Te Lai.

Ting-Yu, an engineer in his 30s, attended college in the United States and has a young son born in the United States with his wife, Hsiao Chen, according to Taiwanese media. He now works for the Dutch electronics multinational Philips.

“If the PRC (People’s Republic of China) wishes to gain leverage over the President of Taiwan in a potential conflict, the location and photos of the close relatives of a senior Taiwanese government official, including photos of their homes and cars, could be useful to the PRC,” FBI Special Agent Kevin Holt wrote in the Oct. 3, 2026, criminal complaint.

Taiwan is at the center of high geopolitical concerns tensions for decades. It claims independence, while the Chinese government claims to be part of China. The island occupies a key position, straddling major shipping lanes, and is where many of the world’s most advanced semiconductor chips are manufactured.

CBS News has reached out to the Taiwanese consulate for comment.

The complaint says Zhang, 34, and a man named only as “Individual 1” flew from Las Vegas to Seattle on September 1, 2025, rented a black Nissan Rogue and drove to their target’s home.

Footage from a neighbor’s security camera included in the complaint allegedly shows the two “appearing to film” Ting-Yu, his wife and their child as they returned home that evening.

CBS News compared the footage to an address near Seattle owned by Ting-Yu.

Zhang reportedly texted his Chinese government official: “I saw it. A young man. It’s this kid” and “I’m recording a video,” followed by two license plate numbers, according to the complaint.

The FBI agent wrote that the texts from the Chinese messaging app WeChat were obtained through a search warrant on Zhang’s iCloud account.

“Zhang was in contact with at least two people who she appeared to recognize worked for the PRC government,” the agent wrote.

The complaint claims Zhang was introduced in June 2025 to one of China’s government officials by a classmate at her alma mater, Beijing International Relations University, who Holt says has close ties to the Ministry of State Security.

Holt’s affidavit claims that Zhang booked a private room in Changsha, China, during a trip in June 2025, where she allegedly met with the government official and received her surveillance assignment.

She then texted the official: “I can take care of this thing,” according to the complaint.

On August 26, 2025, Zhang wrote: “I will be busy with work in Los Angeles this week. I’ll probably go to Seattle next week,” and the manager said, “Okay. Thank you for your hard work,” the complaint states.

Zhang is a licensed California real estate agent with JC Pacific Capital Inc. Her Zillow profile indicates she has 130 sales and listings around Los Angeles and surrounding counties.

Ting-Yu received his bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio, in 2012; a master’s degree in bioengineering innovation and design from Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore the following year; then a doctorate from the Department of Bioengineering at the University of Washington, according to a profile in one of his academic publications.

Taiwanese news channel SETN reported that he met his Taiwanese wife while studying for his doctorate. They married in 2018 and had a child in the United States in 2020, according to CNA, Taiwan’s national news agency.

Chinese government agents have already been caught spying on and harassing Chinese dissidents and pro-democracy activists in the United States

Federal prosecutors said Shujun Wang75, infiltrated and informed a Chinese pro-democracy group in Queens, New York, on behalf of China’s Ministry of State Security for 17 years. He was convicted in 2024 of acting as a foreign agent.

Two people were arrested in April 2023 for their involvement in an unofficial Chinese police station in Manhattan created to monitor Chinese dissidents.

The Justice Department has warned of a plan by Chinese security services called Operation Fox Hunt to repatriate wanted Chinese nationals around the world, which targets enemies of the regime.

New York-based Quanzhong An, who prosecutors say is one of the leaders of the U.S. branch of Operation Fox Hunt, was convicted in March 2025 after harassing a Chinese dissident in an effort to bring him back to China.

In California, former Arcadia Mayor Eileen Wang was accused of acting as a Chinese agent in May. She admitted to being paid to spread pro-China government propaganda in the United States, including an essay on her blog denying “forced labor” in China.