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2026-10-05 China-Japan-Koreas
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California realtor, 34, busted at LAX on Chinese espionage charges as creepy texts to Beijing handlers revealed: feds
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[NYP] A California realtor has been arrested at LAX after being accused of spying for China.
Wanying Zhang, also known as “Heather,” was busted at the airport Sunday as she tried to board a flight to Shanghai.
The 34-year-old, who lives in Irvine, Orange County, is accused of working with handlers from the People’s Republic of China to surveil the son of Taiwan’s president Ching-Te Lai.
‘We have a problem with Beijing using Chinese-Americans for their own purposes in California,” AG Bill Essayli said. “They are using them for their own foreign affairs because they are playing the long game to get a competitive advantage over us. She wasn’t spying against us, she was allegedly conducting a campaign on behalf of Beijing.”
A criminal complaint released by the FBI Sunday shows texts between her and other alleged agents about tracking Ting-Yu Lai in Seattle, Washington, where he works for electronics giant Philips.
Surveillance camera photographs also allegedly caught Zhang sitting in a car with an accomplice taking pictures of his house and close relatives.
It is the latest Chinese spying scandal to rock California, months after the mayor of Arcadia was snared in a secret propaganda and fake news campaign for the PRC.
And it comes as tensions between China and Taiwan remain high, with US officials fearing Beijing will try to invade the island at some point next year.
Zhang, who worked for a real estate firm along with her husband Edric Ding, allegedly traveled to Seattle in September 2025 to spy on Ting-Yu Lai, an engineer in his 30s who is based in the US.
The text exchanges described in the federal complaint are a key part of the government’s case against Zhang.
According to the FBI affidavit, investigators obtained WeChat communications from Zhang’s iCloud account that they say show her communicating with two people believed to be Chinese government officials and discussing tasks that eventually led to the surveillance of the son of Taiwan’s president.
During a September 2025 exchange, Zhang allegedly told the Chinese government official that she had seen the Taiwanese president’s son. “It’s that young one,” she said. The official then asked whether Zhang was available for an audio call to discuss the matter, but Zhang responded that she was recording video of him.
At the time, Zhang was allegedly at the son’s residence in Seattle.
“According to the affidavit, 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,” Essayli said. “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.”
Zhang allegedly also took photos of the residence of the son and sent them to the Chinese government officials she was in touch with.
Zhang’s alleged communications with officials date back to Sept. 2022. They include text messages exchanges with an alleged Chinese government official on WeChat regarding children, investments and differences between the U.S. and China among other things.
At that time, Zhang was just asking the alleged official, “Which bureau in the ministry are you in again?” indicating with the use of “bureau” that the person is connected to the Chinese government.
We just arrested a Chinese foreign agent at LAX attempting to depart for China.
Wanying Zhang, aka “Heather,” 34, of Irvine, was arrested today by @FBILosAngeles on a federal complaint charging her with acting as an unregistered agent of the People’s Republic of China.… pic.twitter.com/6YHoeErg5B
— F.A. United States Attorney Bill Essayli (@USAttyEssayli) October 4, 2026
In March 2025, Zhang told the alleged Chinese government official that she planned to travel to Beijing. The official responded that they should meet while she was in the city.
“I will go to Beijing. Let’s organize a small gathering. Ha,” Zhang said.
Text exchanges continued through June 2025, including discussions about Zhang meeting with an alleged Chinese official in the U.S.
The final text exchanges between Zhang and an alleged Chinese official before she traveled to Seattle, where she allegedly surveilled the son at his residence, were in August 2025.
“I will be busy with work in L.A. this week,” Zhang said. “I will probably go to Seattle next week.”
Essayli added that she’s expected to appear in federal court in Los Angeles tomorrow for her initial appearance.
Zhang’s arrest is the latest in a series of high-profile cases involving allegations of Chinese government influence and espionage in California.
Back in March, disgraced former Arcadia mayor Eileen Wang entered a plea in federal court following the bombshell admission that she was a spy for China.
Wang pleaded guilty after taking a plea deal with the Department of Justice, admitting that she had acted as an illegal agent of the People’s Republic of China (PRC), ABC7 reported.
Wang agreed with prosecutors that she worked with the PRC to boost propaganda with a fake news website on US soil between 2020 and 2022.
She was elected to the city council in Arcadia — a city in the San Gabriel Valley within LA County — in November 2022.
Then in August, former Democratic Rep. Eric Swalwell confessed to a prescription drug-fueled sex romp with a suspected Chinese spy, according to newly released FBI files that confirm for the first time the disgraced former congressman got physical with Beijing’s purported honeypot.
The former East Bay congressman had “physical relations” with Christine Fang, also known as “Fang Fang,” on at least two occasions, according to investigative files made public Monday by the White House Transparency Task Force.
On one occasion, Fang showed up at Swalwell’s apartment late one night demanding to be let in, with the Democrat admitting the two “hooked up” after he had taken an Ambien — his explanation for barely remembering the tryst.
A former Swalwell campaign aide told FBI agents in a May 1, 2015, interview that Fang was “very flirtatious” and boasted to Swalwell “that she was not wearing any underwear” upon arriving at his doorstep unannounced.
Swalwell, whose career and campaign for California governor imploded this past April after accusations of rape and sexual assault by multiple women, was interviewed at the FBI’s Oakland outpost in 2015, as Fang became the subject of a counterintelligence investigation over her relationships with Bay Area and national political figures.
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Posted by Skidmark 2026-10-05 00:00||
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