{"id":485488,"date":"2026-10-05T06:20:10","date_gmt":"2026-10-05T06:20:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/485488\/"},"modified":"2026-10-05T06:20:10","modified_gmt":"2026-10-05T06:20:10","slug":"california-woman-arrested-and-accused-of-spying-on-taiwan-presidents-son-for-china-china","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/485488\/","title":{"rendered":"California woman arrested and accused of spying on Taiwan president\u2019s son for China | China"},"content":{"rendered":"

US authorities arrested a California<\/a> \u2060woman on \u200bSunday, accusing her of spying on the son of Taiwan\u2019s president at the behest of Chinese officials, the FBI said.<\/p>\n

The FBI \u2060arrested Wanying Zhang, also known as Heather, at Los Angeles International Airport on Sunday before her planned departure to China<\/a>, the agency said in a \u2060statement. Authorities charged Zhang, 34, of Irvine, California, with acting as an unregistered foreign agent.<\/p>\n

Zhang surveilled a \u200bson of Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te, the \u200cFBI alleged. The agency \u200cdid not directly name Zhang\u2019s alleged target, but later shared a New York Post report \u200cidentifying him as Lai Ting-yu, a US resident.<\/p>\n

Taiwan\u2019s presidential office described Zhang\u2019s alleged actions as a \u201ctypical case of transnational repression\u201d and thanked the US government for protecting Taiwanese citizens.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur country expresses the strongest condemnation of such barbaric conduct that disregards human rights and the sovereignty of nations,\u201d spokesperson Karen Kuo said in a statement.<\/p>\n

China\u2019s foreign ministry did not respond to \u200ca request for comment.<\/p>\n

The Justice Department alleged Zhang travelled to Seattle in 2025 at the direction of Chinese officials and sent them photos, video and licence plate information of the Taiwanese president\u2019s son and his family.<\/p>\n

Zhang used tradecraft to avoid detection \u2060and never notified Washington that she was acting for a foreign government, Bill Essayli, \u200bthe first assistant US \u200battorney for the Central District of \u200bCalifornia, alleged in a statement.<\/p>\n

It was not immediately clear whether Zhang \u200bhad a defence attorney. She \u200cwill appear on \u200bMonday in a \u200bLos Angeles federal court, Essayli said.<\/p>\n

Lai and his Democratic Progressive Party champion Taiwan\u2019s separate identity from China, a position that frequently angers Beijing, which views the island as \u200bChinese territory. Lai says only Taiwan\u2019s people can decide their future.<\/p>\n

Washington does not have formal diplomatic ties with Taiwan, but the US is the island\u2019s most important international backer and weapons supplier.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"US authorities arrested a California \u2060woman on \u200bSunday, accusing her of spying on the son of Taiwan\u2019s president…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":485489,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[7,9,8],"class_list":["post-485488","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-california","tag-california","tag-california-headlines","tag-california-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/485488","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=485488"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/485488\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/485489"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=485488"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=485488"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=485488"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}