Taiwan condemns alleged surveillance of Lai's son in U.S.

Taipei, Oct. 5 (CNA) Taiwan's Presidential Office on Monday condemned what it called a "typical case of transnational repression" after a CBS News report alleged that China has been illegally surveilling the son of President Lai Ching-te (賴清德) in the United States.

Presidential Office spokesperson Karen Kuo (郭雅慧) said Taiwan strongly condemned such "barbaric" acts that disregard human rights and national sovereignty and seek to suppress, threaten or even harm people who advocate freedom and democracy or their families.

"Such behavior should not be tolerated in the civilized world," Kuo said in a brief statement.

She thanked U.S. law enforcement authorities for assisting and protecting Taiwanese people and said Taiwan would continue to work with the United States and other democratic allies to jointly combat illegal acts of transnational repression.

The Presidential Office's comments came after CBS News reported Sunday that the FBI had arrested Wanying "Heather" Zhang, a California real estate agent, at Los Angeles International Airport that day on charges of acting as an unregistered agent of a foreign government. She was about to board a flight to Shanghai, China.

According to the CBS News report, a criminal complaint filed in federal court by a member of the FBI's counterintelligence squad in Los Angeles accused Zhang and an accomplice of traveling to Seattle in September 2025 and taking photographs at the suburban home of the family of a high-ranking Taiwanese government official.

Law enforcement sources told CBS News that the target was Lai Ting-yu (賴廷與), the son of President Lai.

Lai Ting-yu, an engineer in his 30s who studied at a U.S. college, now works for Dutch electronics company Philips and has a young son, according to Taiwanese media reports cited by CBS News.

In the CBS report, FBI Special Agent Kevin Holt wrote in the Oct. 3 complaint that photographs and information about the whereabouts of the official's close relatives and the locations of their homes and vehicles of a "high-ranking Taiwanese government official" could potentially be used by China to gain "leverage over the Taiwanese president" in a future conflict.

The complaint accused Zhang, 34, and a man identified only as "Individual 1" of flying from Las Vegas to Seattle on Sept. 1, 2025, renting a black Nissan Rogue and driving to the target's home, the report added.

The report said images from a neighbor's security camera included in the complaint appeared to show the two filming Lai Ting-yu, his wife and their child as they arrived home that evening.

The CBS report also said Zhang allegedly texted a Chinese government handler, based on WeChat messages obtained through a search warrant for her iCloud account.

Holt also wrote that Zhang had been in contact with at least two people she appeared to acknowledge as working for the Chinese government, the CBS report said.

The report went on to provide further details about Zhang's background and how she allegedly came into contact with Chinese intelligence.