Another spy from the CCP has been caught in America. Federal authorities arrested an Irvine real estate agent at Los Angeles International Airport on Sunday, accusing her of conducting surveillance on the Taiwanese president’s son for the Chinese government. Wanying Zhang, 34, also known as Heather, was preparing to board a flight to Shanghai when she was taken into custody on a charge of acting as an unregistered foreign agent.
A criminal complaint alleges that Zhang coordinated with people investigators identified as Chinese government officials to monitor Ting-Yu Lai, a Seattle-area Philips engineer in his 30s whose father is Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te. Investigators cited WeChat messages recovered from Zhang’s iCloud account and camera footage they say shows her photographing a residence linked to Lai, according to The California Post.
According to the affidavit, Zhang traveled to Seattle with an associate in September 2025 and sent her contacts photographs, video and license-plate information. Camera footage allegedly captured her sitting in a car outside the residence, reclining her seat and taking pictures.
In one exchange that month, Zhang told a contact identified by investigators as a Chinese government official that she had spotted the president’s son. “It’s that young one,” she wrote. When the contact asked whether she was available for a call, Zhang replied that she was recording video of him, according to the affidavit.
U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli said Zhang took steps to conceal the surveillance and failed to disclose her alleged work for Beijing. “According to the affidavit, Zhang traveled to Seattle in 2025 and, at the direction of PRC officials, surveilled a close relative of a Taiwanese government official, sending photos, videos, and license plate information to those officials,” he said. “She coordinated the trip with an associate and used tradecraft to avoid detection. She never notified the Attorney General she was acting for a foreign government, a federal offense.”
The complaint traces Zhang’s WeChat contacts to September 2022, when she asked one person, “Which bureau in the ministry are you in again?” Subsequent conversations covered children, investments and differences between life in the United States and China.
By March 2025, Zhang was discussing a possible gathering in Beijing. “I will go to Beijing. Let’s organize a small gathering. Ha,” she wrote. Messages continued through the summer and included discussions about meeting an official in the United States. Shortly before the Seattle trip, she wrote, “I will be busy with work in L.A. this week,” followed by, “I will probably go to Seattle next week.”
Essayli described the allegations as part of a broader effort by Beijing to recruit people in California to advance its interests. “We have a problem with Beijing using Chinese-Americans for their own purposes in California,” he said. “They are using them for their own foreign affairs because they are playing the long game to get a competitive advantage over us. She wasn’t spying against us, she was allegedly conducting a campaign on behalf of Beijing.”
The mayor of Arcadia, California, was charged with acting as an agent for China in May.
Zhang, who worked at a real estate firm with her husband, Edric Ding, is expected to make an initial appearance in federal court in Los Angeles. The complaint charges her with acting on behalf of a foreign government without notifying the attorney general; it does not allege that she spied on U.S. government targets.
The allegations follow years of warnings about Beijing’s intelligence operations on American soil. In 2023, U.S. officials described roughly 100 incidents involving Chinese nationals entering or attempting to enter military installations and other sensitive locations, including a missile range in New Mexico and waters near a government rocket-launch facility in Florida. Officials said some incidents appeared designed to test security, with participants posing as tourists and reporting their findings to the Chinese government.
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