The FBI fears the alleged Chinese agent arrested at LAX on Sunday may try to flee the country if released after her court hearing on Wednesday, law enforcement sources told CBS News.
Investigators claim California realtor Wanying Zhang owned a business in China, regularly has money deposited in a Chinese bank account and has parents, a brother and sister currently living there, CBS News has learned.
One law enforcement source said Zhang also had a Chinese passport that was not recovered during an FBI search of her home.
The sources provided information anonymously as they were not authorized to speak on the record. Zhang's husband and sister declined to comment.
The Orange County mother, 34, is now facing federal prosecution for allegedly surveilling the Taiwanese president's son in Washington last year at the direction of Chinese government officials.
Zhang is currently in the custody of U.S. Marshals in Los Angeles. She was arrested Sunday trying to board a flight to Shanghai at Los Angeles International Airport, CBS News was first to report.
She appeared briefly in court on Monday, represented by a public defender. The judge told Zhang to get a private defense attorney by the time of her detention hearing, scheduled for Wednesday afternoon.
Her husband, Edric Ding, a realtor at the same Irvine, California, firm, attended the hearing alongside his sister, who's an attorney.
According to the criminal complaint against Zhang, she attended the University of International Relations in Beijing between 2010 and 2014, which is run by China's Ministry of State Security, the country's intelligence agency and secret police.
FBI counterintelligence special agent Kevin Holt wrote in his affidavit in the complaint that the ministry "recruits heavily" from the university.
Two law enforcement sources told CBS News that Zhang was one of the top students in her class at UIR.
Zhang's Facebook page shows she is friends with eight current or former staff and students at the university.
On Tuesday, CBS News revealed Zhang's links to a Chinese American advocacy group with deep ties to the Chinese government.
She traveled to San Francisco with the organization, the All American Chinese Association, to celebrate Chinese President Xi Jinping's visit there in 2023. Pro-China activists then attacked pro-democracy protesters outside Xi's hotel. There is no evidence Zhang was involved in the violence.
A photograph shows her behind an AACA banner, standing next to the group's leader, Edward Cai, who previously served as vice president for an organization so close to the Chinese government, it was forced to register under the Foreign Agents Registration Act.
FARA requires agents of foreign governments to inform the Justice Department of their status and any lobbying, attempted influence or other activities in the U.S.
Cai and the AACA did not respond to a request for comment.
Reached by phone on Sunday, Ding told CBS News, "I don't know anything yet." He declined to comment further on Monday in federal court.
- Los Angeles
- FBI
- Spying
- China
