On Monday, October 5th, Chinese-American woman Zhang Wanying appeared in Los Angeles Federal Court for the first time. She is accused of acting as an illegal agent for the Chinese Communist Party and allegedly being tasked with monitoring the son of Taiwan’s President Tsai Ing-Wen. Zhang’s husband Edric Ding and two close friends were present in court to listen to the proceedings.
On Sunday, the FBI arrested 34-year-old Zhang Wanying, a real estate agent from Orange County, California, at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) as she was preparing to board a flight to Shanghai, China.
Internet users dug deep into her background and discovered that like former Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang and female spy Fang Fang, Zhang Wanying also graduated from the Beijing “School of International Relations,” known as a “spy cradle.”
In court on Monday afternoon, Zhang Wanying was escorted by marshals wearing handcuffs and ankle restraints, still dressed in the attire she was arrested in – a white fitted jacket, black sweatpants, and white sneakers.
During the court proceedings, she only confirmed her name and indicated her understanding of the criminal charges by the U.S. government against her for acting as an unregistered and illegal agent for the Chinese Communist Party. She glanced back at her husband during the hearing and also made eye contact several times with a man in his fifties in the gallery, nodding at him.
Zhang Wanying’s court-appointed defense attorney Chad Pennington requested a private conversation with the prosecution team and the judge during the hearing. He informed Judge Steve Kim that Zhang Wanying intends to hire a private attorney.
As the defense attorney has not been confirmed yet, the initial court appearance did not conclude substantially. The judge rescheduled her detention hearing for Wednesday and instructed her to promptly secure a private defense attorney. Until then, she will remain in custody.
When reporters asked Zhang Wanying’s husband and two companions – a young woman and the man mentioned earlier – if they were willing to comment, all three remained silent and declined to respond. Ding’s social media account shows that the young woman is his sister.
Zhang Wanying has become a naturalized U.S. citizen. According to the real estate transaction platform Zillow, she currently works for a real estate agency in Irvine, California, with 10 years of work experience and proficiency in English and Chinese.
Her social media accounts on platforms like Xiaohongshu (Red), Instagram, and LinkedIn reveal a more extensive background. The photos posted on her account depict a fairly affluent lifestyle she leads.
On a verified LinkedIn account with Zhang Wanying’s profile picture, it states, “I currently work in the sales team of one of America’s largest independent residential real estate brokerages, promoting a $1.5 billion luxury residential project developed by a ‘Fortune 500’ company from China. I hold a Master’s degree in Public Administration from the University of Southern California (USC) and accumulated one year of work experience in an investment bank in Beverly Hills.”
Her LinkedIn profile also mentions her graduation from the School of International Relations in 2014. The school has close ties to China’s Ministry of State Security and is known as a “spy university” and “training ground for agents.” Former Chinese Ambassador to the United States Qin Gang and Fang Fang, who was accused of using seduction to influence American officials, both graduated from this institution.
According to the indictment, Zhang Wanying and “Chinese Government Official 1” are both 2014 graduates of the School of International Relations, specializing in Public Administration. After graduating, the two remained in contact electronically and occasionally met. They discussed children, investments, compared differences between the U.S. and China, and conversations also involved surveilling high-ranking Taiwanese government officials and their families in Seattle, Washington.
CBS News reported that Zhang Wanying’s alleged target for surveillance was the son of Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-Wen, Lai Ting-Yu.
The indictment accuses Zhang Wanying of arriving in Seattle with a companion on September 1, 2025, renting a car to surveil the target’s residence. They were alleged to have taken images of the residence, vehicles, and related personal images from inside the car, and Zhang Wanying subsequently transmitted the acquired pictures to Chinese officials.
The case is still in the indictment phase, and if convicted in the future, Zhang Wanying could face up to 10 years in prison.
FBI counterintelligence officer Roman Rozhavsky stated in a statement on Monday, “This indictment exposes a brazen conspiracy led by the Chinese government (CCP) attempting to secretly surveil a close relative of a Taiwanese government official within the U.S.”
“Zhang Wanying is accused of working for the Chinese government without being registered, ultimately leading to her arrest. This once again demonstrates that the CCP regime will stop at nothing to achieve its goals,” he said. “But the FBI will not stand idly by. We will staunchly defend the sovereignty of our democratic allies and combat any attempts by the Chinese government or foreign entities to conduct transnational suppression activities within the U.S.”