California Realtor Arrested at LAX on China Spying Charges
FBI agents arrested a 34-year-old Irvine realtor at Los Angeles International Airport on Sunday as she tried to board a flight to Shanghai, charging her with acting as an unregistered agent of China.
Wanying “Heather” Zhang is accused of working with an associate to photograph and record the family of a Taiwanese official outside their Seattle-area home. Prosecutors say she sent photos, videos and license plate details to Chinese officials.
The alleged target is Ting-Yu Lai, the US-based son of Taiwan’s president, who works for electronics company Philips in Seattle. Prosecutors say Zhang received the surveillance task during a meeting with a Chinese official in Changsha in June 2025 and travelled to Seattle in September, using tradecraft like AirDrop and deleting files to avoid detection.
“We just arrested a Chinese foreign agent at LAX attempting to depart for China,” said First Assistant US Attorney Bill Essayli. Zhang is a naturalised US citizen.
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