An Irvine real estate agent was arrested at Los Angeles International Airport on Sunday as she attempted to board a flight to Shanghai, accused by federal prosecutors of working for the Chinese government to surveil the son of Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te.
Wanying Zhang, 34, who also goes by “Heather,” is accused in a federal complaint of traveling to Seattle in September 2025 to monitor Ting-Yu Lai, an engineer in his 30s based in the United States. Prosecutors say she photographed his residence, recorded video of him, and sent license plate information back to officials she believed worked for the People’s Republic of China.
U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli said 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.”
“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.”
According to an FBI affidavit, investigators pulled WeChat messages from Zhang’s iCloud account showing conversations with people believed to be Chinese government officials, dating back to at least September 2022. Early exchanges touched on children, investments and differences between the U.S. and China. In one, Zhang asked a contact, “Which bureau in the ministry are you in again?” — a question prosecutors say shows she knew the person held a government post.
By March 2025, the messages turned to meeting plans. Told that Zhang intended to travel to Beijing, the contact suggested getting together while she was there. “I will go to Beijing. Let’s organize a small gathering. Ha,” Zhang wrote. The conversations continued into June, when the pair discussed meeting in the U.S.
In August, weeks before the alleged Seattle surveillance, Zhang told the official she expected to head north once her work in Southern California wrapped up. “I will be busy with work in LA this week,” she wrote. “I will probably go to Seattle next week.”
During the alleged September surveillance, Zhang reportedly told an official she had spotted Lai. When asked if she could talk by phone, she said she was busy recording video of him outside his residence.
Zhang is a graduate of USC, where the full cost of attendance can top $75,000 a year, and worked as a realtor at an Orange County firm alongside her husband, Edric Ding, who holds the same job at the same company. Social media posts show the couple’s travels to Paris and outings around the West Coast, as well as Ding’s visits to Korean barbecue spots and anime conventions. The two appear to have a young child together.
Reached by phone Sunday, Ding told CBS News, “I don’t know anything yet,” and declined to say more.
Zhang is scheduled to make her initial court appearance in Los Angeles on Monday.
Part of a Pattern in California
The arrest adds to a string of recent cases in California tied to alleged covert activity linked to the Chinese government. In March, former Arcadia Mayor Eileen Wang pleaded guilty in federal court to acting as an illegal agent of the PRC, admitting she helped spread propaganda through a fake news website operating in the U.S. between 2020 and 2022. Wang had been elected to the Arcadia City Council in November 2022.
Separately, newly released FBI files surfaced in August detailing former Rep. Eric Swalwell’s past relationship with Christine Fang, known as “Fang Fang,” who investigators suspected of working on China’s behalf. Swalwell told the FBI he had “physical relations” with Fang on at least two occasions, including one he said followed his taking Ambien, which left him with limited memory of the encounter. A former campaign aide told agents in a 2015 interview that Fang was “very flirtatious” and once told Swalwell she wasn’t wearing underwear after showing up at his home unannounced. Swalwell was interviewed about Fang at the FBI’s Oakland office in 2015 as part of a broader counterintelligence probe into her ties to Bay Area political figures.
