Wanying “Heather” Zhang was arrested at the Los Angeles airport while boarding a flight to China and charged with acting as an unregistered foreign agent.
The FBI arrested a woman at Los Angeles International Airport as she was leaving the country and accused her of spying on the Taiwanese leader's family.
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Wanying Zhang, also known as Heather, reportedly surveilled the Taiwanese leader's son and his family on behalf of the Chinese government while she was in the US, according to the agency.
Zhang, 34, was arrested on charges of working for Beijing as an unregistered agent, Assistant US State Attorney Bill Essayli announced on social media. Zhang allegedly took photos and videos of her targets and sent license plate information to Chinese officials, he added.
She was arrested as she was departing the country for a flight to China. Her nationality was unclear, and an attorney who represents her could not be identified. She is due to appear in federal court in Los Angeles on Monday.
Taipei issued a statement claiming Lai Ching-te’s relatives were the targets, without specifying if it was the leader's son, saying that “this is a classic case of transnational repression".
The nationalist Republic of China government, which ruled mainland China before losing the civil war to the Communist Party, retreated to Taiwan in 1949 and declared itself the sole representative of all of China.
In 1971, the UN recognised the People's Republic of China as the only lawful representative of China. Beijing regards Taiwan as part of its territory.
Lai, who was elected in 2024, has said that Taiwan and Beijing do not belong to each other and that the “People's Republic of China has no right to represent Taiwan.”
China considers him a separatist and has called him a “destroyer of peace”.
While in office, Lai has dramatically ramped up defence spending for Taiwan, notably pledging to increase defence expenditure from 3% to 5% of GDP, and pushing through a special budget for the construction of a T-Dome air defence system.