Plane enthusiast or Chinese spy? Chinese national in Canada charged by the FBI
· Toronto Sun
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A University of Waterloo undergrad student is in American custody after the FBI charged him with making a false statement.
Weiheng Zeng, a Chinese national who lives in Cambridge, Ont., was charged on Aug. 26 with one count of making false statements to federal officers. He was arrested at the Ambassador Bridge in Windsor on Aug. 23.
Zeng popped up on the radar of the feds back in April after a security camera at O’Hare International Airport in Chicago allegedly captured the 24-year-old taking pictures, climbing a forklift and trying to gain access to sensitive areas at FedEx’s airport facility.
With the assistance of CCTV cameras, the FBI managed to track him back to his vehicle, a dark blue Chrysler Town & Country minivan with Ontario licence plates.
The case against Zeng was put on ice until he attempted to cross the border in the same vehicle on Aug. 23. Zeng told U.S. Customs and Border Protection that he was headed to Chicago for a one-day trip.
He was denied entry into the United States, and border officials interviewed him three times instead.
Over the course of his interviews, his story kept changing, said the 19-page affidavit sworn in U.S. District Court in Detroit by Robert Holbrook, a special agent assigned to the FBI’s Counterintelligence Division.
Border agents then found numerous pictures of military aircraft on Zeng’s phone. He said the pictures were taken to post on a flight radar website.
“Zeng’s phone was also found to contain pictures of him and other individuals in tactical clothing and in tactical formations, holding rifle-styled firearms,” Holbrook wrote in the complaint. Zeng said the weapon was an airsoft gun. The Chinese national denied having any military training or service.
A Chinese contact
Under further questioning, the affidavit said Zeng admitted to taking pictures of specific planes and their tail number of an unnamed “Chinese contact.”
Zeng believed his “contact” worked for a Chinese security service. He said they met online on a Chinese forum for aviation lovers in 2024.
Apparently, Zeng was paid for his alleged surveillance work, making $20 to $30 per accepted photograph. He was paid in yuan, via a bank transfer.
The FBI report alleges that Zeng would send photos and communicate via text messages from his Huawei phone, the SIM card allowing him to bypass the Canadian cellular network and connect directly to a Chinese provider network that would allow communication with his contact.
His contact would send him new SIM cards every four to five months.
“Zeng, at the direction of ‘Chinese Contact,’ would subsequently destroy the SIM cards, delete the conversations, and delete the photos he took,” wrote Holbrook.
The report said that Zeng allegedly took photos inside FedEx’s facility at Toronto Pearson last October.
A federal prosecutor termed him a flight risk and urged the court to keep him detained.
“He is a foreign resident and a foreign citizen,” assistant U.S. attorney Alyse Wu told the court.
Zeng consented to remain in custody.
The allegations have not been proven in court. He has not been charged with espionage.