The alleged Chinese agent arrested at Los Angeles International Airport on Sunday may have had help, according to the FBI.
Fatai Miao, a Chinese-born California construction entrepreneur, is the man believed to have accompanied realtor Wanying Zhang to Seattle in September 2025, where she allegedly surveilled the Taiwanese president’s son, CBS News has learned.
Through federal documents, law enforcement sources and interviews with his family and neighbors, CBS News confirmed Miao’s identity.
Miao took a “one-way” flight to China two weeks ago, prosecutors said in court on Wednesday, referring to him as “Individual 1.” The Justice Department has not accused him of any wrongdoing, and a relative described him as a “follower” who would not participate in any sophisticated government activity.
Miao’s neighbors in Irvine, California, said about 10 FBI agents serving a search warrant broke into his empty home using a battering ram around noon on Sunday, shortly after Zhang was arrested trying to board a flight to Shanghai.
Miao’s U.S.-resident son, contacted by phone on Tuesday evening, said his father has been in China for the last two weeks to look after his wife, who recently traveled there to receive medical care for her back.
Miao allegedly joined Zhang in Seattle on Sept. 1, 2025, rented an SUV, and was in the car while she allegedly filmed Taiwan’s first son returning to his suburban home with his wife and child, according to documents filed in federal court, which identified him only as “Individual 1.”
Prosecutors claim Zhang was conducting the surveillance on the orders of Chinese government officials, after meeting with them in China to plan the mission the previous month.
The FBI agent who wrote an affidavit for the criminal complaint against Zhang left a trail of clues that helped CBS News reveal Miao as the likely unnamed travel companion.
Counterintelligence Squad Special Agent Kevin Holt wrote that the paperwork for the car that Zhang and “Individual 1” rented on their alleged Seattle surveillance trip listed the address of a home on Walnut Avenue in Arcadia, California, that he owned at the time.
“Based on public records, I know that Individual 1 sold a house at this address on or about September 11, 2025,” the FBI agent wrote.
Property records show the only house on that street sold on that date belonged to Miao.
CBS News has learned that Miao is a person of interest in the FBI’s Zhang investigation.
Miao’s current home, in a newly built housing complex in Irvine, has remained empty since the FBI raided it on Sunday, neighbors said.
When a CBS News reporter visited the property on Tuesday, the handle on the front door was snapped and there was a large dent that splintered the wood beside it. The home’s video doorbell had been ripped from the wall.
The only sign of life at the house was three pairs of flip-flops left on the front patio.
“Me and my sister got a call on Sunday noon,” said Miao’s son, Jiaqi Miao, in a telephone interview. “Someone says he’s from the FBI and he has a search warrant. I thought he’s a scammer.
“Then I checked the security camera at our house and I see several government agents holding a gun outside. I was trying to open the door for them using the remote app, but it was too late. They already used the door breach thing,” he added.
Jiaqi Miao said the agents arrived in “five or six SUVs and one big truck.”
Neighbors’ accounts of the raid matched Jiaqi Miao’s description.
He said his father had been friends with Zhang for over a decade, after she showed him a condo he was considering buying. He said she lived temporarily at Fatai Miao’s Arcadia property about 10 years ago.
“We rented her the pool house for a few months,” he said. “I think her own house had some renovations going on.”
A neighbor, who declined to give his full name, said he was friendly with the elder Miao, and that he had recently attended a dinner party with several guests including Fatai Miao and Zhang.
Jiaqi Miao said although the FBI’s description of “Individual 1” in the complaint “sounds like him,” he said he does not believe his father, who he says does not speak English, is an unregistered agent for the Chinese government.
“To be honest, I don’t think he’s smart enough to do those things,” Jiaqi Miao said. “He always follows others. For example, he doesn’t understand soccer, but he went to the World Cup because his friend told him it’s a big event.”
The elder Miao is CEO of several companies, according to California corporation records, including Jiacheng Real Estate Investment and Management Inc., Jin Yuan Investment LLC, M & Y Construction LLC, and NeoBio USA LLC.
The company J&J California Construction, registered at Fatai Miao’s Walnut Avenue address, held a general contractor license that expired last year.
“The reason he came to the U.S. is because my parents think me and my sister can get better education here,” Jiaqi said. “My father is the only one in our family to choose to get U.S. citizenship. That’s why I think there’s no reason why he would want to work with the Chinese government.”
Jiaqi Miao said he suspects that his father’s trip to Seattle with Zhang occurred innocently after hearing his friend wanted to visit a different city.
Jiaqi said he spoke with his father on the phone from China after the raid. He said his father told him he learned of Zhang’s arrest from a friend, and reassured his son that “everything is fine.”
The son, who attends school in the U.S., said Fatai Miao is now looking to hire a lawyer.
A judge denied Zhang’s attorney’s request to release her on bail during a hearing on Wednesday.
Prosecutors told the court she poses a serious flight risk, in part due to her access to “hundreds of thousands of dollars” in China.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Amanda Elbogen said Zhang had deposited $170,000 in a Chinese bank account from an unlicensed currency exchange business, that she had a Chinese passport that law enforcement had been unable to find, and that her parents and siblings live in China — including a brother who she claimed worked for the Chinese government.
CBS News previously revealed Zhang’s links to a Chinese American advocacy group with deep ties to the Chinese government.
She traveled to San Francisco with the organization, the All American Chinese Association, to celebrate Chinese President Xi Jinping’s visit there in 2023.
Pro-China activists then attacked pro-democracy protesters outside Xi’s hotel, though there is no evidence Zhang was involved in the violence.
A photograph shows her behind an AACA banner, standing next to the group’s leader, Edward Cai, who previously served as vice president for an organization so close to the Chinese government it was forced to register under the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA).
FARA requires agents of foreign governments to inform the Justice Department of their status and any lobbying, attempted influence, or other activities in the U.S.
