The Federal Bureau of Investigation arrested a Californian woman at Los Angeles International Airport on Oct. 4 on suspicion of acting as an unregistered agent for Beijing and surveilling a close relative of a Taiwanese government official, officials said.

“Heather” Zhang Wanying, 34, who lives in Irvine, Orange County, was taken into custody by FBI Los Angeles when she attempted to leave the United States for China, according to First Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Central District of California Bill Essayli.

The FBI said in an X post, “She surveilled the Taiwanese President’s son and his family—filming their home, vehicles, and reporting information back to PRC handlers,” using the acronym for China’s official name, the People’s Republic of China.

FBI Director Kash Patel told America’s adversaries to “take note.”

“America is no longer a safe place to run your espionage operations,” he said in a post on X. “This FBI is hunting threats to our national security wherever they hide—and bringing them to justice.”

Zhang’s target was Lai Ting-Yu, the son of Taiwanese President Lai Ching-Te, Essayli told Fox News. He also confirmed that the woman is a naturalized U.S. citizen.

In his 30s, Lai Ting-Yu, an electrical engineer with a doctorate, works for a private company in the United States, according to a report by Taiwan’s news media SETN.com.

Zhang traveled to Seattle in 2025 to do the alleged “foreign intelligence operations” on direct order of Chinese state officials, according to the affidavit.

She is listed as a real estate agent with JC Pacific Capital Inc., according to Zillow and Homes.com, with nine years of work experience in Irvine, California.

The prosecutors accused Zhang of coordinating the trip with an associate and using tradecraft to avoid being detected. They said she never registered her work in the United States as a foreign agent.

Zhang’s arraignment in a Los Angeles federal court is scheduled for Oct. 5.

Zhang and her associate were captured by a home security camera inside a vehicle near Ting-Yu Lai’s home, appearing to film the victim and his family, according to the affidavit.

Through a court-sanctioned search warrant on March 9, 2026, the FBI obtained the records from Zhang and the associate’s iCloud accounts. These records allegedly revealed that she had a direct connection with at least two Chinese officials, to whom she sent the collected information.

Zhang attended the University of International Relations in Beijing, an entity closely affiliated with China’s intelligence agency, the Ministry of State Security, according to the records.

Evidence allegedly shows that on or about Jan. 25, 2025, Zhang met in China with a Chinese official who had been her classmate at the University of International Relations, and with whom Zhang had kept in contact since graduating in about 2014.