"Saw him. Young male. It's that young one." An FBI affidavit says Wanying "Heather" Zhang sent that to a Chinese government contact in September 2025, from a rented SUV outside the Seattle-area home of Taiwan President Lai Ching-te's son. Then: "I am videorecording." Then two license plate numbers. Zhang, 34, is an Irvine realtor and a naturalized U.S. citizen. FBI agents arrested her at LAX on Sunday as she tried to board a flight to Shanghai. She's charged with acting as an unregistered agent of the PRC and is presumed innocent. The complaint doesn't name the target. CBS, citing law enforcement sources, identified him as Lai Ting-yu. Look at what Beijing allegedly wanted. No blueprints, no classified cables. A house, the family's cars, and a neighbor's security camera catching Zhang appearing to film Lai Ting-yu, his wife and their child as they got home. FBI agent Kevin Holt, who wrote the affidavit, spelled out the payoff: knowing where a Taiwanese leader's relatives live and what they drive could give Beijing leverage over Taiwan's president in a conflict. The trail runs back to China. Zhang studied at Beijing's University of International Relations, a school the affidavit says the Ministry of State Security "recruits heavily" from. Investigators believe she got the Seattle job at a June 2025 meeting with a Chinese government contact in Changsha. Her alleged reply: "I can take care of this thing." Southern California has seen this before. In May, Eileen Wang resigned as mayor of Arcadia and pleaded guilty to acting as an illegal agent of the Chinese government. Prosecutors said she and her then-fiancé promoted pro-Beijing content on a website from 2020 to 2022, at the direction of Chinese officials. Beijing's foreign ministry says it opposes "hyped-up accusations of 'China spying.'" The FBI says it has the texts. ACI — Aric Chen | Insights