Alleged Chinese agent makes federal court appearance

A suspected Chinese agent appeared in a Los Angeles federal court Monday after she allegedly surveilled the Taiwanese president’s son near Seattle last year.

Orange County, California, realtor Wanying “Heather” Zhang, 34, appeared calm, dressed in a tailored, white zip-up jacket, sweatpants and white sneakers, with shackles on her wrists and ankles. CBS News was first to report that the FBI arrested Zhang on Sunday at Los Angeles International Airport before she boarded a flight to Shanghai, China.

In court, she spoke only to confirm her name and that she understood the charge against her of working as an unregistered agent of the Chinese government.

Despite selling her Irvine home for $6 million in June, Zhang was represented by a public defender at the hearing.

Judge Steve Kim rescheduled her detention hearing to Wednesday to give Zhang more time to hire a private criminal defense attorney.

Zhang was remanded to the custody of the U.S. Marshals until her Wednesday hearing. 

The public defender, Chad Pennington, told the judge he believed Zhang intended to hire private counsel.

Her husband, Edric Ding, watched the proceedings, flanked by his sister, attorney Elaine Lori.

Standing at the podium, Zhang looked back at her husband briefly, but showed no emotion.

Lori and Ding declined to comment inside the courthouse and remained silent as they were questioned by reporters as they walked to their car after the hearing. When reached by phone on Sunday, Ding told CBS News, “I don’t know anything yet,” and declined to comment further.

Three prosecutors represented the Justice Department: Scott Lara of the National Security Division’s Counterintelligence and Export Control Section, and Assistant U.S. Attorneys Amanda Elbogen and Colin Scott. They said they were not authorized to comment.

U.S. Attorney for the Central District of California Bill Essayli posted a video on X of Zhang being frogmarched through the airport by federal law enforcement, wearing the same outfit she wore in court on Monday.

A criminal complaint, filed in federal court by a member of the FBI’s counterintelligence squad in L.A., accused Zhang and an accomplice of traveling to Seattle in September 2025 and taking pictures at the suburban home of a top Taiwanese official’s family. 

Law enforcement sources told CBS News that the target was Ting-Yu Lai, the son of Taiwanese President Ching-Te Lai.

Ting-Yu, an engineer in his 30s, attended college in America and has a young U.S.-born son with his wife, Hsiao Chen, according to Taiwanese media reports. He now works for the Dutch multinational electronics firm Philips.

The FBI agent’s affidavit claimed the government obtained text messages between Zhang and Chinese government officials evidencing the alleged surveillance.

In one exchange on the day of Zhang’s alleged Seattle trip, she allegedly texted her supposed Chinese government handler, “Saw him. Young male. It’s that young one,” and “I am videorecording,” while footage from Ting-Yu’s neighbor’s security camera showed her “appearing to film” the president’s son, his wife and their child as they arrived home that evening, according to the affidavit. 

As well as arresting Zhang on Sunday, FBI agents also searched her home in an upscale suburb of Irvine, California.

A resident of The Groves neighborhood said she saw about 10 FBI agents searching Zhang’s home on Sunday morning. 

“Several of them were sitting at a table inside the garage,” said the neighbor, who asked to remain anonymous. “Even the ones standing guard were wearing gloves. They told us there was a search going on.”