Woman arrested in alleged surveillance of Taiwan leader’s son
US prosecutors accuse Wanying Zhang of gathering information for Chinese officials near Seattle. The complaint does not name the surveillance target.
FBI agents arrested Wanying Zhang, 34, of Irvine, California, at Los Angeles International Airport on October 4 as she prepared to leave for China. Federal prosecutors accuse Zhang, also known as Heather, of following a close relative of a Taiwanese government official near Seattle at the direction of Chinese officials and sending them photographs, video and license plate information.
The criminal complaint and accompanying FBI affidavit identify the target only as “Victim.” CBS News, citing law enforcement sources, identified him as President Lai Ching-te’s son, Lai Ting-yu. Taiwan’s Mainland Affairs Council condemned the surveillance of Lai’s relatives in an October 5 statement.
The complaint, signed on October 3 in the Central District of California, charges Zhang under 18 U.S.C. § 951 with acting as an agent of a foreign government without the required notification. First Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli said in his announcement that she had never notified the attorney general that she was acting for a foreign government. The charge is an allegation; Zhang is presumed innocent unless proven guilty.
Kevin Holt, an FBI counterintelligence agent in Los Angeles, wrote in the affidavit that investigators obtained Zhang’s and an associate’s iCloud records under federal search warrants. The records included WeChat messages between Zhang and two people investigators believe to be Chinese government officials. The affidavit calls them “PRC Official 1” and “PRC Official 2,” without naming them or their departments.
According to the affidavit, the first contact attended Beijing’s University of International Relations with Zhang and stayed in touch after graduation. In June 2025, he introduced her to the second contact, who asked about a house in the United States. Messages described arrangements to meet in Changsha in late June. In August, they discussed meeting again in Hangzhou.
Holt interpreted the messages as evidence that Zhang accepted a surveillance assignment at the Changsha meeting and knew the second contact worked for the Chinese government. The affidavit contains no recording of that meeting. His account rests on messages sent before and afterward, together with other investigative material.
The affidavit says Zhang and an unidentified man flew from Las Vegas to Seattle on September 1, 2025, rented a black Nissan SUV and waited near the target’s home that afternoon. Holt described a neighbor’s security footage as showing them raising objects that appeared to be phones when the target and family members arrived home, seemingly taking photographs or recording video.
In WeChat messages reproduced in the affidavit, Zhang told the second contact that she had seen a young man and was recording video. She then sent two license plate numbers. Holt said vehicle registration records linked both cars to the target. The affidavit also describes a roughly 16-second video of the house that she sent. Zhang and the man flew back to Los Angeles the following day.
On September 8, Zhang allegedly asked the man to transfer the Seattle photographs by AirDrop rather than WeChat or text message. On September 11, the second contact asked again for photographs of the house. The man told Zhang that he had deleted all the images, including those in the deleted-items folder. Holt interpreted the transfer instructions and deletion of files as efforts to conceal the surveillance and avoid detection by law enforcement.
Holt suggested that information about the relative’s location, home and vehicles could provide leverage over Taiwan’s president if China sought to exert pressure during a potential conflict. That is the investigator’s assessment of how the information might be used. The complaint does not charge Zhang with kidnapping or assault.
Taiwan’s Mainland Affairs Council statement described the case as transnational repression. The council said existing Taiwanese law provided insufficient grounds to counter similar surveillance conducted on foreign instructions and that the government was drafting amendments to the Anti-Infiltration Act.
Reuters reported that China’s embassy in Washington had not responded to its request for comment at the time of publication. It was also unclear whether Zhang had retained a lawyer. Essayli said her initial appearance in federal court in Los Angeles was scheduled for October 5.
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