r/China • u/Local_Shock_1945 • 9h ago
新闻 | News US accuses California woman of surveilling Taiwan leader's son for China
https://asia.nikkei.com/politics/international-relations/us-china-tensions/us-accuses-california-woman-of-surveilling-taiwan-leader-s-son-for-china0
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u/No_Whereas_6 7h ago
I don't know what's the value of him monitoring him.
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u/GetOutOfTheWhey 6h ago
Well in the Taiwan invasion series, in the first episode I think.
The Taiwanese president's son was reportedly kidnapped to apply leverage on the Taiwanese president. Now in the series it was revealed that the whole kidnapping plot was a ploy to create public unity and sympathy.
But I guess that's the value? Threatening family members? Psychological warfare, occasionally send picture of his son and his grandchild to Lai Ching Te?
Or at least this is one of those movie tropes. I am also on the side that there is no value to monitoring the son and family. Even less to threatening them. I think the CCP is dumb to even try.
Lai is a lame duck president he cannot even do anything even if he wanted to. And if he tries to some kind of martial law bs like what that previous South Korean president did, he'll get arrested and spend the rest of his life in a Taiwanese prison after the public revolts against him.
Now if I was Lai though, I would still use this chance to try to rally the public like the president in the TV series did. "OH THE COMMUNISTS ARE THREATENING MY FAMILY!" Something like that. It might boost his rating a bit.
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u/No_Whereas_6 5h ago
I suspect this is an official act by the CCP.
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u/GetOutOfTheWhey 4h ago
I reckon so. Since she is being sent back to China. It would be dumb if this was somehow a false flag operation like in the TV series.
But lets say if it is, that somehow someone from DDP was able to catfish her into becoming their fake spy and then exposed her.
Oh then she is like doubly screwed. CCP will be waiting for her at the airport ready to question her.
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u/Ulyks 1h ago
It could be this woman acted on her own. There are a lot of people from China that find no purpose living abroad and start to get into conspiracies or obsessing over something they saw in a tv series.
It can go both ways, sometimes they become entirely anti China like that virologist that was used in the pandemic to push the bio weapon theory.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/07/us/china-virologist-li-meng-yan-coronavirus.html
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u/Local_Shock_1945 9h ago
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -- U.S. authorities arrested a California woman on Sunday and accused her of spying on a son of Taiwan's president at the behest of Chinese officials, the FBI said.
The FBI arrested Wanying Zhang, also known as Heather, at Los Angeles International Airport on Sunday before her planned departure to China, the agency said in a statement. Authorities charged Zhang, 34, of Irvine, California, with acting as an unregistered foreign agent.
Zhang surveilled a son of Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te, the FBI said. The agency did not directly name Zhang's alleged target, but later shared a New York Post report identifying him as Lai Ting-yu, a U.S. resident.
Taiwan's presidential office described Zhang's actions as a "typical case of transnational repression" and thanked the U.S. government for protecting Taiwanese citizens.
"Our country expresses the strongest condemnation of such barbaric conduct that disregards human rights and the sovereignty of nations," spokesperson Karen Kuo said in a statement.
China's foreign ministry did not respond to a request for comment.
Lai and his Democratic Progressive Party champion Taiwan's separate identity from China, a position that frequently angers Beijing, which views the island as Chinese territory. Lai says only Taiwan's people can decide their future.
The Justice Department said Zhang traveled to Seattle in 2025 at the direction of Chinese officials and sent them photos, video and license plate information of the Taiwanese president's son and his family.
Zhang used tradecraft to avoid detection and never notified Washington that she was acting for a foreign government, Bill Essayli, the first assistant U.S. attorney for the Central District of California, said in a statement.
It was not immediately clear whether Zhang has a defense attorney. She will appear on Monday in a Los Angeles federal court, Essayli said.