Zhang, 34, of Irvine, was arrested Oct. 4 at Los Angeles International Airport before boarding a flight to Shanghai and charged with acting as an unregistered agent of China. Prosecutors allege she and Miao traveled to Seattle in September 2025 at the direction of Chinese officials to surveil Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te's son, Lai Ting-yu, and his family, sending back photos, video and license plate data. FBI agents used a battering ram to raid Miao's empty Irvine home on Oct. 4, about two weeks after he took a one way flight to China.
A federal judge ordered Zhang held without bond on Oct. 7, rejecting her offer of more than $1.2 million in property after prosecutors noted inconsistencies in her asset declarations and an unrecovered Chinese passport. Prosecutors said Zhang attended Beijing's Ministry of State Security-run University of International Relations from 2010 to 2014, received $190,000 into a Chinese bank account from an unregistered cryptocurrency exchange and had hundreds of thousands of dollars available in China.