The Federal Bureau of Investigation of the United States (FBI, for its initials in English) has reported the arrest, just before boarding a flight to Shanghai, of a "suspected agent" from China whom it attributes surveillance activities on Lai Ting Yu, son of Taiwanese President Lai Ching Te.
"The FBI has arrested a suspected agent of the People's Republic of China at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) before she could board a flight to Shanghai," the FBI announced in a social media post.
In that same statement, the federal agency claims that the detainee "was monitoring the son of the President of Taiwan and his family, recording their home and vehicles, and transmitting the information to her superiors in the People's Republic of China."
"Foreign intelligence operations cannot be carried out on U.S. soil and simply get on a plane back home," the entity stated.
In this regard, its director, Kash Patel, has called the attention of "foreign adversaries" of Washington to "take note" that the United States "is no longer a safe place to carry out their espionage operations."
"Allegedly monitoring the family of a foreign leader on U.S. soil for the People's Republic of China and trying to catch a flight back to Shanghai? No way," he expressed, also on social media.