Los Angeles:A woman has been arrested for allegedly surveilling the son of Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te on behalf of China. She is also suspected of monitoring a Taiwanese elected official known for opposing the Chinese Communist Party, as reported by the FBI.
According to Focus Taiwan, FBI Special Agent Kevin Holt stated that Wanying Zhang, a California real estate agent and naturalized U.S. citizen originally from China, was suspected of surveilling a Taiwanese official with vocal anti-CCP views about six months prior to the surveillance of President Lai's son.
Zhang reportedly met with a Chinese official, identified as "PRC Official 1," in China on or around January 25, 2025. Approximately five weeks later, Zhang used a messaging app to inquire about an address in Irvine, California, which was previously linked to a Taiwanese elected official with anti-CCP views.
Holt indicated that based on Zhang's photos, travel records, and subsequent messages, it is possible that the Chinese official tasked Zhang with obtaining information about the residents of this address during their meeting in January 2025.
Zhang was arrested at Los Angeles International Airport on Sunday, just before boarding a flight to Shanghai, for allegedly acting as an unregistered agent of a foreign government. A criminal complaint filed by the FBI's counterintelligence squad in Los Angeles accused Zhang and an accomplice of photographing the home of a high-ranking Taiwanese government official's family in Seattle in September 2025.
The U.S. House Select Committee on the Strategic Competition Between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party condemned the surveillance of Lai's son as a violation of American sovereignty. Chairman John Moolenaar emphasized that this incident reflects the CCP's global threat and expressed solidarity with President Lai and his family.
