An Irvine real estate agent is accused of working as an unregistered agent for the Chinese government — and spying on the family of Taiwan’s president.
The FBI arrested 34-year-old Wanying “Heather” Zhang Sunday at LAX as she was preparing to board a flight to Shanghai.
Federal prosecutors allege Zhang traveled to Seattle in September of last year at the direction of people she understood to be Chinese government officials. Investigators say she and an associate surveilled a close relative of a senior Taiwanese official, taking photos and video and collecting license-plate numbers before sending information to her alleged handlers through WeChat. Law-enforcement sources identify the target as the U.S.-based son of Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te, although the federal complaint itself does not name him. Fox News
Prosecutors say Zhang used techniques intended to avoid detection and never registered with the Justice Department as an agent of a foreign government.
She is charged with acting as an unregistered agent of China. The allegations have not been proven, and Zhang is presumed innocent unless convicted. FOX 11 Los Angeles
This is also the latest in a string of separate Southern California cases involving alleged Chinese activity — including last week’s arrest of a San Gabriel tech-company owner accused of illegally sending more than $300 million in export-controlled computer servers to China.
