An Irvine, California real estate agent accused of spying for the Chinese government asked a federal judge Wednesday to release her from custody, putting up more than $820,000 in home equity and family guarantees as she fights the government’s case that she is a flight risk.
Wanying Zhang, 34, was arrested Sunday at Los Angeles International Airport as she prepared to board a flight to China. She is charged with acting as an unregistered foreign agent, a federal offense carrying up to 10 years in prison.
According to an FBI affidavit, Zhang allegedly took part in a September 2025 surveillance operation outside the Seattle-area home of a close relative of a Taiwanese government official. Investigators say security-camera footage shows Zhang and another person photographing the relative and family members near the residence, and that Zhang passed photos, video and vehicle information to a suspected Chinese government official electronically.
The FBI also noted that Zhang attended China’s University of International Relations in Beijing, a school the bureau describes as closely tied to China’s intelligence services.
Zhang’s attorney, Craig Harbaugh, is pushing back hard. In a nine-page filing, he told the court his client became a U.S. citizen in 2020, after arriving in 2014, and has spent roughly a decade working in Orange County real estate. She lives in Irvine with her husband and two daughters, ages 8 and 5.
To secure her release, the defense proposed pledging an Irvine home with at least $700,000 in equity, plus $120,000 in guarantees from her husband, his sister, his father and a family friend. Harbaugh also offered GPS-monitored home detention, surrender of travel documents, electronic monitoring and a ban on airports or contact with anyone tied to the case.
Pretrial Services has already recommended detention, citing flight risk. The defense argues those concerns can be managed through strict conditions rather than jail.
Prosecutors have pointed to Zhang’s one-way ticket to China as evidence she didn’t plan to come back. Her lawyers dispute that reading, saying she routinely books outbound and return flights separately and has traveled to China, France and Japan over the past year, returning each time. They say the October trip was meant to visit her mother and had already been pushed back past her daughters’ birthdays.
Zhang denies the charge and says she intends to prove her innocence in court.
