The FBI arrested a suspected Chinese foreign agent at the Los Angeles International Airport on Sunday after she allegedly surveilled the Taiwanese President’s family. Bill Essayli, the First Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Central District of California, posted on social media platform X that FBI agents in Los Angeles nabbed 34-year-old Wanying “Heather” Zhang of Irvine, Calif., as she was attempting to depart for China.
Zhang was arrested on a federal complaint charging her with acting as an unregistered Chinese agent, Essayli said. She is slated to appear in federal court in Los Angeles Monday. FBI Director Kash Patel appeared to laud the arrest on social media.
Not happening.” A spokesperson for Taiwan’s presidential office described on Monday Zhang’s purported actions as a “classic case of transnational repression” and thanked the U.S. government. Taiwan, the self-governing island that China claims to have sovereignty over, has been a point of contention between Washington and Beijing for decades. Washington, while acknowledging Beijing’s position on Taiwan, has maintained close unofficial relations with Taipei, though those ties have been mired in uncertainty under U.S.
China, meanwhile, has long branded Taiwan’s leader William Lai Ching-te as a separatist and a “destroyer of peace.” During Chinese President Xi Jinping’s recent state visit to the U.S., President Trump said of the topic: “We didn’t spend a lot of time talking about Taiwan.” Zhang’s arrest comes months after Eileen Wang, a former mayor of Arcadia, Calif., pleaded guilty to acting as an illegal agent for the Chinese government. The former mayor admitted to promoting pro-Beijing content in the U.S. Both cases are part of a reported pattern of people acting on behalf of the Chinese government to target Chinese dissidents outside of China.
While the American public’s view of China has improved, and even as Beijing makes diplomatic overtures to the Trump Administration, many in Washington remain hawkish against the U.S.’s geopolitical rival. The latest report from the U.S. Congressional-Executive Commission on China continues to warn about Beijing’s transnational repression activities, including intimidation and the targeting of Hong Kongers, Uyghurs, Tibetans, Taiwanese figures, and other Chinese dissidents.
Rick Scott (R, Fla.) posted on X: “This is only further PROOF of what we already know—they’re actively infiltrating our country and threatening our national security.” Authorities filed a criminal complaint against Zhang in federal court, CBS News and Fox News reported, with an affidavit from an FBI special agent. According to a copy of the 27-page complaint Fox News obtained, Zhang, who previously attended a university in Beijing and was a registered real estate agent in Southern California, was allegedly in contact with at least two individuals apparently working for the Chinese government. Essayli, speaking to Fox News Sunday, said that Zhang was a naturalized U.S. citizen.
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