Assistant U.S. State Attorney Bill Essayli announced on Monday that the FBI arrested a Chinese spy tasked with surveilling the president of Taiwan.
Essayli announced the arrest in a post on X.
“We just arrested a Chinese foreign agent at LAX attempting to depart for China,” he wrote. “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.”
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.
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.
She will appear in federal court in Los Angeles tomorrow for her initial appearance. Defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty.
We just arrested a Chinese foreign agent at LAX attempting to depart for China.
— F.A. United States Attorney Bill Essayli (@USAttyEssayli) October 4, 2026
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
This is the latest in a series of arrests of Chinese spies operating on U.S. soil. Arcadia, California, Mayor Eileen Wang was charged with acting as an illegal agent for the Chinese government and pleaded guilty after prosecutors accused her and a partner of promoting pro-China propaganda from late 2020 through 2022 without notifying the U.S. Attorney General’s Office.
🚨CASE UPDATE from @FBILosAngeles: Arcadia, California, Mayor Federally Charged with Acting as Illegal Agent of the People’s Republic of China Eileen Wang has been charged in federal court with acting as an illegal agent of the People’s Republic of China (PRC). From late 2020 through 2022, Wang and Yaoning “Mike” Sun worked at the direction and control of PRC government officials. They coordinated with U.S.-based individuals to promote the PRC’s interests by, among other things, promoting pro-PRC propaganda in the United States through U.S. News Center, a website that purported to be a news source for the local Chinese American community, and they received and executed directives from PRC government officials to post pro-PRC content on the website. Read more: https://t.co/J4teKIaKIK
— FBI (@FBI) May 11, 2026
Federal authorities charged an American citizen named Thomas Weir Pauken II in June. He also pleaded guilty to acting as a Chinese agent in the United States between 2019 and 2026. He met with intelligence sources and passed information to handlers tied to the Chinese government. He received at least $100,000 to carry out these tasks.
Last year, the FBI arrested Yuance Chen and Liren “Ryan” Lai for allegedly carrying out clandestine jobs for China. This included cash dead drops and efforts to gather information on U.S. Navy personnel.
