The FBI arrested a suspected Chinese agent at Los Angeles International Airport for allegedly spying on Taiwan’s president’s son in the United States, law enforcement sources told CBS News.
On Sunday, Irvine, Calif., real estate agent Heather Zhang was handcuffed by federal law enforcement before a flight from Los Angeles International Airport to Shanghai, China, on charges of acting as an unregistered agent of a foreign government.
Zhang’s husband, Edric Ding, a real estate agent with the same company, told CBS News by phone Sunday: “I don’t know anything yet,” and declined further comment.
It was unclear whether Zhang had a lawyer.
A criminal complaint filed in federal court by a member of the FBI’s Los Angeles counterintelligence unit alleges that Zhang and an associate traveled to Seattle, Washington, in September 2025 and took photos at the suburban home of the family of a senior Taiwanese official.
Law enforcement sources told CBS News that the target was Lai Ting-yu, the son of Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te.
According to Taiwan media reports, Yu Tingyu is an engineer in his 30s who went to college in the United States and has a son born in the United States with his wife Xiao Chen. He now works for the Dutch multinational electronics company Philips.
“If the People’s Republic of China [People’s Republic of China] “The location and photographs of close relatives of senior Taiwanese government officials, including photos of their homes and cars, may be useful to the People’s Republic of China if they wish to exert influence over Taiwan’s president in any potential conflict,” FBI Special Agent Kevin Holt wrote in the Oct. 3, 2026, criminal complaint.
Taiwan has always been the focus of high-level geopolitical attention decades of tension. It claims its independence while the Chinese government claims it is part of China. The island is strategically located across a major shipping channel and is where many of the world’s most advanced semiconductor wafers are manufactured.
CBS News reached out to Taiwan’s consulate for comment.
The complaint states that 34-year-old Zhang and a man only named “Individual 1” flew from Las Vegas to Seattle on September 1, 2025, rented a black Nissan Rogue and drove to the target’s home.
Images from a neighbor’s security camera included in the complaint purportedly show the pair “appearing to be filming” Ding Yu, his wife and children as they returned home that night.
CBS News matched the images to an address near Seattle owned by Ting-Yu.
Ms. Zhang allegedly texted her Chinese government official: “Saw him. Young male. That’s the young man,” and “I’m videotaping,” followed by two license plate numbers.
FBI agents wrote that text messages from the Chinese messaging app WeChat were obtained from a search warrant on Zhang’s iCloud account.
“Zhang has been associated with at least two individuals whom she appears to acknowledge work for the Chinese government,” the agent wrote.
The complaint alleges that Zhang was introduced to a Chinese government official in June 2025 by a classmate at his alma mater, Beijing University of International Relations. Holt said the university has close ties with the Ministry of National Security.
Holt’s testimony said Zhang booked a private room in Changsha, China, during a trip in June 2025, where she allegedly met with government officials and accepted surveillance missions.
“I can handle this,” she later texted the officer, the complaint states.
On Aug. 26, 2025, Zhang wrote: “I’m very busy working in Los Angeles this week. I may go to Seattle next week.” The officer responded: “Okay. Thank you for your hard work,” the complaint states.
Zhang is a California licensed real estate broker with JC Pacific Capital Inc. Her Zillow profile shows she has 130 sales and listings in Los Angeles and neighboring counties.
Ting-Yu earned a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio, in 2012; a master’s degree in bioengineering innovation and design from Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore the following year; and later earned a doctorate in bioengineering from the University of Washington, according to a profile in one of his academic publications.
Taiwanese television news station SETN reported that he met his Taiwanese wife while studying for his PhD. They married in 2018 and gave birth to a child in the United States in 2020, according to Taiwan’s state news agency Central News Agency.
Chinese government agents have previously Caught spying Attacking and harassing Chinese dissidents and pro-democracy activists in the United States
federal prosecutors said Shujun WangNow 75 years old, he infiltrated and reported on a Chinese democracy group in Queens, New York for the Chinese Ministry of State Security. In 2024, he was convicted of acting as a foreign agent.
In April 2023, the two were arrested for their involvement in an unofficial Chinese police station in Manhattan designed to monitor Chinese dissidents.
The U.S. Department of Justice has warned that Chinese security services have launched a program called “Operation Fox Hunt” to repatriate wanted Chinese citizens around the world, targeting enemies of the regime.
Prosecutors said An Zhong, who lives in New York and is the leader of the U.S. branch of Operation Fox Hunt, was sentenced in March 2025 for harassing a Chinese dissident and trying to bring them back to China.
In California, former Arcadia Mayor Aileen Wang was charged in May with acting as a Chinese agent. She admitted that she had been hired to spread pro-Chinese government propaganda in the United States, including publishing articles on her blog denying the existence of “forced labor” in China.