Old and busted: Fang Fang! New hotness: Zhang Zhang?
Say what you will about the Chinese Communist Party, but ... they really like California. Perhaps they feel most at home in Gavin Newsom's People's Republic. Birds of a feather, and all that!
Speaking of birds, the FBI managed to catch this one before she flew back to the CCP mothership. See if you can detect a pattern, because Fox 11 in Los Angeles certainly did:
Fox refers to another espionage case from five months ago, when the mayor of Arcadia in Southern California admitted to acting as a foreign agent of China. John wrote about it at the time, when Eileen Wang pled guilty to the charge in federal court. Wang partnered with another Chinese national to spread PRC – People's Republic of China, not California – propaganda. The DOJ laid out the facts of the case after Wang's plea deal, including her contacts with China's intelligence services.
This seems to be a pattern in California, as the DoJ asserts with Wanying "Heather" Zhang, only this operation appeared more malevolent. Zhang allegedly tailed and surveilled Ting-Yu Lai, the son of Taiwan's president Ching-Te Lai, who lives and works in the US for the multinational electronics firm Philips:
Wanying “Heather” Zhang, 34, was taken into custody by FBI agents while attempting to depart for China, according to federal authorities.
A criminal complaint filed in federal court charges Zhang with acting as an unregistered agent of the People’s Republic of China.
According to an affidavit filed with the complaint, Zhang traveled with an associate to the Seattle area in September 2025 at the direction of people she allegedly understood to be Chinese government officials.
The pair allegedly surveilled a close relative of a senior Taiwanese government official, taking photographs and video and collecting vehicle license plate information before transmitting some of that information to Zhang’s alleged handlers.
Who was "Heather" Zhang? Ostensibly, Zhang ran a successful practice as a realtor in expensive Southern California. Her husband, also her partner in the realty business, claims ignorance of the allegations:
Wanying "Heather" Zhang, an Irvine, California, realtor, was cuffed by federal law enforcement on Sunday before she boarded a flight to Shanghai, China, from LAX, on a charge of acting as an unregistered agent of a foreign government.
Zhang's husband Edric Ding, a realtor at the same firm, told CBS News when reached by phone Sunday: "I don't know anything yet," and declined to comment further.
Just how credible is this statement from Ding? Consider the following:
The complaint said Zhang, 34, and a man named only as "Individual 1" flew from Las Vegas to Seattle on Sept. 1, 2025, rented a black Nissan Rogue and drove to their target's home.
Images from a neighbor's security camera included in the complaint allegedly show the two "appearing to film" Ting-Yu, his wife and their child as they arrived home that evening.
CBS News matched the images to an address near Seattle owned by Ting-Yu.
Zhang allegedly texted her Chinese government handler: "Saw him. Young male. It's that young one," and "I am videorecording," followed by two license plate numbers, according to the complaint.
So even though Zhang and Ding operate a realty in Irvine, somehow Ding didn't have any issue with his wife and business partner as she flew to Seattle with some other dude for a few days? Hmmmm. One has to think that the FBI will take a very close look at the Zhang-Ding realty practice to determine just how much of their business was legitimate, and how much may have been fronted by the PRC to provide cover for Zhang's "business trips." Ding may or may not have been involved, but if he wasn't, then the PRC duped him too with a honey-pot operation of sorts.
And why would the PRC tail Lai? (Ting-Yu is his personal name.) Lai apparently doesn't work for Taiwan or hold any particular role of responsibility in government. The PRC tracked him as a target, either for extortion or for kidnapping at some point, simply on the basis of his family connection to Taiwan's president. Eileen Wang was a propagandist, but if the allegations in Zhang's case are true, she was a real operative. And it's now clear that Zhang, Wang, and Fang are hardly alone, although they all seem inclined to congregate in California.
Maybe the only people who can afford to live in Newsom's paradise are Chinese intel operatives?
The arrest itself is also interesting. In counterespionage, the traditional approach is to simply track spies for as long as possible rather than arrest them. That allows agencies to get more information on the hostile networks operating in a country and prevents their replacement with new operatives that may avoid detection. If the FBI and DOJ went after Zhang, they may have either gotten all the information about the network they needed, or they may have worried that Zhang and her handlers were about to do something with Lai.
Or perhaps they just want to send a message to Beijing's Big Pooh Bah:
Foreign adversaries take note: America is no longer a safe place to run your espionage operations. Allegedly surveil a foreign leader’s family on U.S. soil for the PRC — and try to catch a flight back to Shanghai? Not happening. This FBI is hunting threats to our national security wherever they hide — and bringing them to justice. 🇺🇸 DKP
— FBI Director Kash Patel (@FBIDirectorKash) October 5, 2026
Xi Jinping may have been riding high after his summit with Donald Trump last month. This humiliation may be a parting gift from Trump and his team. It certainly should serve as a warning.
Addendum: There is another possibility. The US could be looking at a deal to free Jimmy Lai and/or others held by the PRC. Zhang might be trade bait. Stay tuned.
