CBS identifies ‘accomplice’ of alleged Chinese agent

• By Jake Chung / Staff writer, with CNA

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CBS News on Thursday reported that Miao Fatai (苗發泰), a Chinese-born construction entrepreneur in California, might be the unidentified companion who allegedly helped Wanying “Heather” Zhang (張婉瑩) surveil the family of President William Lai’s (賴清德) son.

Zhang was arrested by the FBI at Los Angeles International Airport on Sunday as she was about to board a flight to Shanghai.

She is accused of acting as an unregistered agent of the Chinese government.

FBI agents arrest Wanying “Heather “Zhang, center, at Los Angeles International Airport on Sunday.

Photo courtesy of the FBI

According to CBS News, an FBI affidavit filed in support of the criminal complaint contained clues that helped identify Miao as “Individual 1,” the unnamed person who allegedly accompanied Zhang on a surveillance trip to Seattle on Sept. 1 last year.

Court documents said the pair rented an SUV and that Zhang allegedly filmed Lai’s son returning to his suburban home with his wife and child.

The rental paperwork listed the address of a home on Walnut Avenue in Arcadia, California, that Miao owned at the time, according to Counterintelligence Squad Special Agent Kevin Holt’s affidavit.

Miao took a one-way flight to China about two weeks ago, prosecutors told a court on Wednesday.

However, the US Department of Justice has not accused him of wrongdoing, CBS News reported.

Miao’s son, Miao Jiaqi (苗家齊), on Tuesday said that his father was in China to care for his wife, who was receiving medical treatment there.

He said someone claiming to be an FBI agent had called him and that agents had a search warrant for his father’s newly built housing complex in Irvine, California, on Sunday.

He initially thought the call was a scam, CBS News reported.

Miao Jiaqi said his father had been friends with Zhang for about a decade, having met her when she showed him a condominium he was considering buying.

Zhang had also temporarily lived at his father’s Arcadia property about 10 years ago, he said.

Although the FBI’s description of “Individual 1” in the complaint sounded like his father, Miao Jiaqi said he did not believe his father, who does not speak English, was an unregistered agent for the Chinese government.

“To be honest, I don’t think he’s smart enough to do those things,” he said, adding that his father tended to follow others.

He recalled that his father had gone to the FIFA World Cup because a friend told him it was a major event, despite knowing little about soccer.

Miao Jiaqi said he spoke with his father by phone after the raid, who said he had learned of Zhang’s arrest from a friend and reassured him that “everything is fine.”

Miao Jiaqi added that his father was looking to hire a lawyer.