FBI arrests a woman accused of spying on Taiwan leader's family for China

JUST IN: FBI arrests a woman, Wanying Zhang, accused of spying on the Taiwanese president's son and his family on behalf of China.

The FBI has arrested a woman accused of spying on the Taiwanese president's family. For China.

Her name is Wanying Zhang, and the allegation is that she was gathering intelligence on President Lai's son and his family, on American soil, on Beijing's behalf. You can see pictures from the operation here. Details are still thin, but the target tells you everything. Not a weapons lab, not a defence contractor. A family.

Think about what that means. The president's relatives live in the United States precisely because it's supposed to be safe, and someone was allegedly watching them anyway. Taiwan's first family, under surveillance in America.

Beijing will deny it, Taipei will be furious, and Washington now has a live espionage case touching the most sensitive relationship in the Pacific. The hardest fact tonight is simple. China's intelligence reach allegedly extended right into a Taiwanese president's home life, thousands of miles from Taiwan.

This is Sara White, reporting for HIT.