California Real Estate Agent Charged with Spying for China After Dramatic Airport Arrest

A California real estate agent has been taken into custody by the FBI on charges that she secretly spied on behalf of the Chinese government.

Wanying “Heather” Zhang, 34, was arrested on Sunday at Los Angeles International Airport as she prepared to depart for China, according to federal officials.

Zhang has been accused of working as an unregistered agent of the People's Republic of China (PRC) and surveilling a relative of a high-ranking Taiwanese official while the person was living in the U.S., according to a criminal complaint filed in federal court.

Citing flight records and other collected evidence, the affidavit filed with the complaint states that Zhang and an associate, referred to as Individual 1, travelled to Seattle on or around September 1, 2025. There, the complaint alleges they filmed the victim and his family and communicated their findings with at least two people whom Zhang understood to be PRC government officials.

Zhang is a licensed California real estate agent with JC Pacific Capital Inc. in Irvine. She has sold 126 properties with an average price of $3.3 million, according to a public profile.

A spokes person from JC Pacific Capital told Realtor.com® that they “don’t have any comment on that,” when asked about the charges against Zhang.

Zhang’s contact information has been removed from JC Pacific Capital’s public website.

Zhang attended the University of International Relations (UIR) in Beijing, China, which is closely associated with the country’s intelligence apparatus including the Ministry of State Security (MSS), according to the affidavit.

One of the Chinese officials directing Zhang was allegedly a classmate of hers at UIR whom she kept in touch with after they graduated around 2014.

It was through this former classmate that Zhang was allegedly introduced to an additional PRC official. They met in China in both June and August 2025, where Zhang was likely tasked to conduct surveillance on a specific individual, according to the affidavit.

During the following trip to Seattle, Zhang and Individual 1 allegedly sent photographs, videos, and license plate numbers associated with the victim to the PRC officials, based on iCloud records obtained by the FBI from a search warrant.

While observing the target’s home, Zhang allegedly sent the following messages to her PRC contacts via a popular Chinese messaging app, WeChat: “Saw him. Young Male. It’s that young one,” and “I am videorecording,” along with two license plate numbers.

Security camera footage from a neighbor shows Zhang and Individual 1 waiting for the target’s arrival home, at which point they took out their phones and “held their phones out in a manner indicating that they were taking pictures and/or videos of the family,” the affidavit reads.

A law enforcement source told CBS News that the surveillance target was Ting-Yu Lai, son of Taiwanese President Ching-Te Lai. Ting-Yu attended college in the United States and now works as an engineer. He and his wife have a young U.S.-born son, according to CBS News.

Chinese President Xi Jinping has expressed his intent to unify Taiwan with China, despite Taiwan having its own democratically elected government.

China has begun to modernize its military in case it needs to complete this goal by force, and has also embarked on coercive activities meant to “erode Taiwan’s will to fight a war against China,” FBI Special Agent Kevin Holt stated in the affidavit.

“If the PRC were to wish to obtain leverage over the President of Taiwan during any potential conflict, the location and pictures of the close relatives of a high-ranking Taiwanese government official, including pictures of their homes and cars, could be useful to the PRC,” Holt added.

Holt maintained that he is unaware of any possible personal or commercial reason that Zhang would have benefitted from the surveillance she collected.

Neither Zhang nor her associate notified the U.S attorney general that hey were acting on behalf of a foreign government, which is required under federal law, the affidavit states.

The charges have garnered significant attention, with FBI Director Kash Patel writing a strongly worded message on X: “Foreign adversaries take note: America is NOT your playground.”

“The Chinese government allegedly sent an operative to surveil the family of Taiwan’t President ON AMERICAN SOIL — photos, video, license plates — then she tried to hop a flight back to Shanghai,” Patel wrote. “Wrong move.”