Woman in Lai's son case suspected of spying on Taiwan official: FBI

Los Angeles, Oct. 6 (CNA) A woman arrested for allegedly surveilling President Lai Ching-te's (賴清德) son on behalf of China is also suspected of monitoring a Taiwanese elected official known for opposing the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), according to a Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) special agent.

In an affidavit dated Oct. 3 and filed in a federal court in California, FBI Special Agent Kevin Holt said Wanying Zhang (張婉瑩) was suspected of surveilling a "Taiwanese elected official, with vocal anti-CCP views," about six months before the alleged surveillance of Lai's son.

Holt said Zhang, a California real estate agent and China-born naturalized U.S. citizen, met with a Chinese official, referred to as "PRC [People's Republic of China] Official 1," in China on or around Jan. 25, 2025.

About five weeks later, Holt said, Zhang used a messaging app to ask the official about "the address you mentioned last time," referring to an address in Irvine, California.

"Thank you for remembering. We figured out that thing. Won't have to trouble you," the official replied.

Holt said he determined, based on conversations with other FBI officials, that the address, which was redacted in the filing, had previously been associated with a Taiwanese elected official who had vocal anti-CCP views.

"Based on a review of Zhang's photos and travel records, I know that she was in China and met with PRC Official 1 on or about Jan. 25, 2025," Holt said.

"Based on these messages, I believe it is possible that PRC Official 1 tasked Zhang with obtaining information about the residents of this address when they met in person on or about Jan. 25, 2025, and that their conversation on WeChat afterwards was meant to clarify the address in furtherance of that tasking," he said.

CNA contacted the FBI to verify the identity of the Taiwanese official mentioned by Holt but has yet to receive a response as of press time.

Zhang was arrested Sunday at Los Angeles International Airport before boarding a flight to Shanghai, on suspicion of acting as an unregistered agent of a foreign government.

According to a CBS News report Sunday, a criminal complaint filed 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 photographing the suburban home of the family of a high-ranking Taiwanese government official.

CBS News said the target was Lai Ting-yu (賴廷與), the son of President Lai.

In a statement released Tuesday by the U.S. House Select Committee on the Strategic Competition Between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party, Chairman John Moolenaar said the surveillance of Lai's son on U.S. soil was "a chilling reminder that the CCP's destabilizing ambitions for the Taiwan Strait are a global threat."

"I condemn the CCP's violation of American sovereignty and its dangerous belligerence against Taiwan," Moolenaar said. "I hope that President Lai and his family know the Select Committee and the American people stand with them."