FBI arrests alleged Chinese agent at LAX after she allegedly surveilled son of Taiwanese president

Updated on: October 4, 2026 / 8:28 PM EDT / CBS News

The FBI arrested a suspected Chinese agent at Los Angeles International Airport after she allegedly surveilled the Taiwanese president's U.S.-based son, law enforcement sources told CBS News.

Wanying "Heather" Zhang, an Irvine, California, realtor, was cuffed by federal law enforcement on Sunday before she boarded a flight to Shanghai, China, from LAX, on a charge of acting as an unregistered agent of a foreign government.

Zhang's husband Edric Ding, a realtor at the same firm, told CBS News when reached by phone Sunday: "I don't know anything yet," and declined to comment further.

It was not immediately clear if Zhang has an attorney.

A criminal complaint, filed in federal court by a member of the FBI's counterintelligence squad in L.A., accused Zhang and an accomplice of traveling to Seattle, Washington, in September 2025 and taking pictures at the suburban home of a top Taiwanese official's family.

Law enforcement sources told CBS News that the target was Ting-Yu Lai, the son of Taiwanese President Ching-Te Lai.

Ting-Yu, an engineer in his 30s, attended college in America and has a young U.S.-born son with his wife, Hsiao Chen, according to…

Original source: https://www.cbsnews.com/world/