Alleged Chinese agent accused of surveilling Taiwanese president’s son appears in federal court

A suspected Chinese agent appeared in a Los Angeles federal court Monday after she allegedly surveilled the Taiwanese president’s son near Seattle last year.

Orange County, California, realtor Wanying “Heather” Zhang, 34, appeared calm, dressed in a tailored, white zip-up jacket, sweatpants and white sneakers, with shackles on her wrists and ankles. CBS News was first to report that the FBI arrested Zhang on Sunday at Los Angeles International Airport before she boarded a flight to Shanghai, China.

In court, she spoke only to confirm her name and that she understood the charge against her of working as an unregistered agent of the Chinese government.

Zhang was represented by a public defender at the hearing.

Judge Steve Kim rescheduled her detention hearing to Wednesday to give Zhang more time to hire a private criminal defense attorney.

Zhang was remanded to the custody of the U.S. Marshals until her Wednesday hearing. 

The public defender, Chad Pennington, told the judge he believed Zhang intended to hire private counsel.

Her husband, Edric Ding, watched the proceedings, flanked by his sister, attorney Elaine Lori.

Standing at the podium, Zhang looked back at her husband briefly, but showed no emotion.

Lori and Ding declined to comment inside the courthouse and remained silent as they were questioned by reporters as they walked to their car after the hearing. When reached by phone on Sunday, Ding told CBS News, “I don’t know anything yet,” and declined to comment further.

Three prosecutors represented the Justice Department: Scott Lara of the National Security Division’s Counterintelligence and Export Control Section, and Assistant U.S. Attorneys Amanda Elbogen and Colin Scott. They said they were not authorized to comment.

U.S. Attorney for the Central District of California Bill Essayli posted a video on X of Zhang being frogmarched through the airport by federal law enforcement on Sunday, wearing the same outfit she wore in court on Monday.

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 allegedly traveling to Seattle 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 Taiwanese media reports. He now works for the Dutch multinational electronics firm Philips.

The FBI agent’s affidavit claimed the government obtained text messages between Zhang and Chinese government officials evidencing the alleged surveillance.

In one exchange, Zhang allegedly texted her supposed Chinese government handler on the day of her alleged Seattle trip, “Saw him. Young male. It’s that young one,” and “I am videorecording,” while footage from Ting-Yu’s neighbor’s security camera showed her “appearing to film” the president’s son, his wife and their child as they arrived home that evening, according to the affidavit. 

As well as arresting Zhang on Sunday, FBI agents also searched her home in an upscale suburb of Irvine, California.

A resident of the neighborhood said she saw about 10 FBI agents searching Zhang’s home on Sunday morning. 

“Several of them were sitting at a table inside the garage,” said the neighbor, who asked to remain anonymous due to safety concerns. “Even the ones standing guard were wearing gloves. They told us there was a search going on.”

Zhang appears to have been renting the home, after selling her 6,030-square-foot, six-bed house a mile away for $6 million in June, according to property records. 

A former neighbor told CBS News he was surprised that the young realtor couple could afford such an expensive property.

“She introduced herself as Heather,” said the neighbor, who also asked to remain anonymous due to safety concerns. “She was super friendly.

“Usually, the people here, they’re a little bit older, because the price of the homes is from $3 million to $10 million. But they were very young,” the neighbor continued. “They did a lot of upgrades. Even though the house was almost brand new, they started changing so many things.”

“Two years later, they only sold it for a little bit higher than what they purchased. It didn’t make sense why would they want to lose money after spending all of that money,” the neighbor added.

The Justice Department claims Zhang was working as an unregistered agent of the Chinese government from June 2025 to September 2025, and plotted her surveillance mission with Beijing officials during a trip to China in June 2025.

“The complaint in this case lays bare a brazen plot directed by the Chinese government to conduct a covert surveillance mission on U.S. soil targeting close relatives of a Taiwanese government official,” Assistant Director Roman Rozhavsky of the FBI’s Counterintelligence and Espionage Division said in a statement released Monday.

“Wanying Zhang’s arrest for allegedly acting as an unregistered agent of the Chinese government makes clear how far China’s authoritarian regime will go to advance its goals. However, this case also demonstrates the FBI’s unwavering commitment to defending the sovereignty of our democratic allies and combating all attempts by the Chinese government – and any foreign adversary – to conduct transnational repression within our borders,” Rozhavsky said.

The Chinese and Taiwanese governments have not responded to requests for comment.