US judge blocks release of alleged Beijing agent accused of filming Taiwan leader’s son
Por Khushboo Razdan — South China Morning Post – News feed
Advertisement US-China relations China Diplomacy US judge blocks release of alleged Beijing agent accused of filming Taiwan leader’s son
Defence had argued the case was based on a ‘single day’ of surveillance and wasn’t proof she would flee, but a federal judge disagreed
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Khushboo Razdan Published: 2:00pm, 8 Oct 2026 A federal judge on Wednesday ordered Wanying “Heather” Zhang be held in custody, after her lawyers – who had fought to keep her out of jail – said she “looks forward to establishing” her innocence at trial.
They argued that the US government’s case centred on a single day of alleged surveillance in Seattle and was not evidence that she posed a flight risk.
US Magistrate Judge Steve Kim sided with prosecutors, who told him that Zhang’s parents and siblings lived in China and that her brother had a history of working with the Chinese government.
“The alleged surveillance began and ended on a single day, September 1, 2025,” Zhang’s lawyers wrote in a brief opposing her continued detention. The government’s complaint, they said, “charges a single violation” of the unregistered-agent statute arising from that day in Seattle.
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