FBI Warns of Flight Risk for Accused Chinese Foreign Agent, Sources Say
FBI raises concerns over flight risk for Chinese national accused of surveillance in U.S. for government officials.
POLICY WIRE — Irvine, California — The FBI has expressed concern that a Chinese national accused of acting as a foreign agent may pose a serious flight risk, according to multiple sources.
The 34-year-old Orange County mother is now facing federal charges for allegedly conducting surveillance on the son of Taiwan’s president in Washington last year, at the behest of Chinese government officials. She appeared in court Monday with a public defender, and the judge ordered her to secure private legal representation by her detention hearing scheduled for Wednesday afternoon.
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Zhang’s husband, Edric Ding, who works at the same Irvine real estate firm, and her sister, an attorney, attended the hearing. According to the criminal complaint, she studied at the University of International Relations in Beijing between 2010 and 2014, an institution linked to China’s Ministry of State Security. FBI special agent Kevin Holt noted in his affidavit that the university actively recruits students for intelligence work. Zhang’s Facebook page lists eight connections to current or former students and staff from the same institution.
In 2023, she traveled to San Francisco with the All American Chinese Association to celebrate President Xi Jinping’s visit, where pro-China activists clashed with pro-democracy demonstrators outside his hotel. No evidence links Zhang to the violence. A photo shows her standing behind an AACA banner next to its leader, Edward Cai, who previously held a high-ranking position in an organization closely tied to the Chinese government and was later required to register under the Foreign Agents Registration Act. Cai and the AACA have not responded to requests for comment.
Reporting by Policy-Wire (PW)
