A California realtor was arrested at LAX while trying to fly to Shanghai after federal authorities accused her of running surveillance on a Taiwanese official’s family for Beijing.
Wanying Zhang, a 34-year-old Irvine realtor also known as “Heather,” was taken into custody on Oct. 4, 2026, on a federal charge of acting as an unregistered agent of the People’s Republic of China, Fox News reported.
Prosecutors say she worked with an associate to photograph and record a senior Taiwanese official’s family outside their Seattle-area home, then moved the material in ways meant to stay off ordinary messaging apps.
First Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli said the arrest came as she tried to leave the country.
"We just arrested a Chinese foreign agent at LAX attempting to depart for China."
Essayli added that she coordinated the trip with an associate, used tradecraft to avoid detection, and never notified the attorney general she was acting for a foreign government, conduct he described as a federal offense. Defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty, he noted.
Investigators believe Zhang received the assignment during a June 2025 meeting with a Chinese government contact in Changsha. She allegedly told that contact she could “take care of this thing.”
On Sept. 1, 2025, Zhang and the associate flew from Las Vegas to Seattle, rented a black Nissan Rogue, and waited near the family’s home, according to an affidavit by FBI Special Agent Kevin Holt.
A neighbor’s security camera allegedly captured the pair quickly sitting up and holding out what appeared to be phones to photograph or record. Family members, including children, arrived shortly afterward.
Holt described Zhang’s posture in the vehicle while the associate took pictures.
"While individual 1 took pictures, Zhang reclined her seat as if to avoid being seen."
Messages attributed to Zhang in the complaint include: “Saw him. Young male. It’s that young one,” and “I am videorecording.” Authorities also say she sent two license plate numbers along with photos and videos.
Days after the Seattle trip, Zhang allegedly told the associate not to move the images over WeChat or text. An audio message described in the affidavit said the Seattle pictures “must be sent over the air,” that she had to send them back the same day, and that “he” wanted them that day.
Holt said he believed the AirDrop instruction was meant to help avoid detection. The associate later told Zhang he had deleted the photos and cleared them from the deleted folder, steps Holt described as an apparent attempt to destroy evidence.
On “The Big Weekend Show,” Essayli framed the conduct in plain terms.
"She was conducting surveillance on behalf of the Chinese government. She was acting as a foreign agent. And she was spying on a relative of the president of Taiwan here in the U.S."
The criminal complaint does not name the alleged target. CBS News, citing law enforcement sources, identified the person as Ting-Yu Lai, the U.S.-based son of Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te. That name is not in the complaint itself.
Holt’s affidavit stated why the alleged conduct stood out.
"Engaging in surveillance of a close relative of a high-ranking member of Taiwan’s government is not normal diplomatic behavior, especially inside of the United States."
The affidavit’s stated concern was leverage: information on a senior Taiwanese official’s relatives could give Beijing pressure points over Taiwan’s president during a potential conflict.
FBI Director Kash Patel cast the case as a signal to hostile services running operations on American soil.
"Foreign adversaries take note: America is no longer a safe place to run your espionage operations. Allegedly surveil a foreign leader’s family on U.S. soil for the PRC, and try to catch a flight back to Shanghai? Not happening."
Patel said the bureau is hunting national-security threats “wherever they hide” and bringing them to justice. FBI Los Angeles agents made the arrest. Zhang was scheduled to appear Monday in federal court in Los Angeles.
Essayli said China is skilled at using people already inside the United States, and that the problem is not limited to California. “I don’t think it’s unique to California. It is happening nationwide,” he said.
Months before this arrest, former Arcadia Mayor Eileen Wang was charged in a separate case with acting as an agent of China in paid efforts to spread pro-Beijing propaganda in the United States, another marker of the same foreign-influence fight playing out in Southern California.
Zhang is a naturalized U.S. citizen. A photo in the complaint shows her beside a man whose face is redacted. Fox News Digital sought additional comment from the FBI and the Justice Department.
Beijing does not get a free hand to map a democratic leader’s family on American streets, then slip a courier onto a Shanghai flight. Enforce the foreign-agent laws, follow the money and the messages, and treat these cases as the national-security work they are.
