Outside the Wall Digest: Did Zhang Wanying only monitor Lai Qingde’s son?

(Deutsche Welle Chinese website) The FBI recently arrested 34-year-old California real estate agent Wanying Zhang, accusing her of serving as a "Chinese foreign agent" and monitoring the son of Taiwan President Lai Ching-te. Taiwan's "Shangbao" published a comment on "What a real estate agent did to monitor Lai Qingde's son." The author Li Haozhong first put it in the context of "overseas secret police": This type of stronghold obviously assists overseas Chinese in handling matters such as changing driver's licenses, but in fact monitors and transmits information back to the Chinese intelligence agency; the human rights organization Safeguard Defenders has revealed that it is distributed in at least 53 countries and more than 100 locations.

According to the U.S. complaint, Zhang Wanying has been active in the Chinese community in California since 2022. When Xi Jinping visited San Francisco in 2023, she appeared in a conspicuous greeting station. In 2025, she became a "complete Chinese spy." On September 1 of the same year, she flew to Seattle at the instruction of Chinese officials, monitored outside the residence of a specific person, and then sent photos, images and license plates of the target vehicle; the FBI found out through the account of the social platform X that the person being followed was the son of the president of Taiwan. Prosecutors believe such information on the whereabouts of close relatives could be useful if Chinese officials hope to influence Taiwan's president in any potential conflict.

Li Haozhong reminded that even if there is no physical threat, her status as a real estate agent itself is of great use: as transactions move online, it is easier for agents to collect customers' social security numbers, bank account information and even copies of driver's licenses, and personal information can be obtained in a deeper and broader way than traditional Chinese societies. He quoted Douglas, a former CIA official and now professor at Georgetown University, as saying: Cross-border suppression has always been only part of China's overseas espionage activities, and its core is still the theft of confidential or sensitive information.

You can’t follow the CCP’s language and speak Taiwan

Taiwan's "Mirror" published an article by Lu Zhiyi, an observer of cross-strait political, economic and public affairs, "From Double Ten to Liberation—China Will Launch a Cognitive Offensive Again." The author points out that after the Second Session of the Trump-Xi Conference, the CCP continued to emphasize "opposing Taiwan independence." What seems to be a consistent diplomatic rhetoric is actually a set of cognitive operations that first defines the problem, then defines the responsibilities, and finally requires the international community to accept the established answer; its usual method is to put all the responsibility for tensions in the Taiwan Strait on Taiwan, but omits a key fact - China has never given up the use of force against Taiwan. He believes that the purpose of this narrative is not to make people completely believe it, but to make the international community gradually accept the framework of "Taiwan is the source of the problem and China is just a passive reaction."

China establishes "Taiwan Liberation Day", Taiwan emphasizes democracy and Guningtou victory

On the historical narrative side, the author believes that United Nations Resolution 2758 deals with China's representation in the United Nations and does not deal with Taiwan's sovereignty. The author then asks: How can a regime that has never established rule in Taiwan, Penghu, Jinma and Ma claim to have the right to rule Taiwan based solely on its own political definition of "China"? He believes that the real brilliance of the CCP is to use history to establish a set of political language that can be used today - the deepest impact of cognitive warfare is not to make people believe a complete lie, but to make people gradually become accustomed to thinking in the other party's language.

Lu Zhiyi suggested that Taiwan should not answer the questions set by the Chinese Communist Party, but should bring the question back to the fundamental causal relationship and use clearer language to describe the behavior of authoritarian regimes using force to force democratic societies to submit.

Low moments: If you don’t want to be a cow or a horse, who do you think you are?

The Don't Understand podcast airs "Moments When You Feel "Inferior" in China: Letters from Eleven Listeners". The program originated from a post on Threads titled "Tell me a hundred moments when you felt humble living in China." The post has received more than 27,000 replies.

Multiple submissions to the show's call for essays point to the cost of accessing information. In order to subscribe to ChatGPT Plus, Xiao Y specially applied for a savings card that supports overseas payment, but it failed because the first six digits of the card number could identify the country where the card was issued. In the end, he had to buy an Apple gift card to top up his US account. He said that a young Chinese person who wanted to subscribe to an AI tool had to go through such a detour, which made him feel deeply inferior. Jimmy said that he just wanted to pull things from GitHub, but he also had to constantly change protocols and update the client; what made him feel even more humble was that he was afraid when he said these words and was worried that the recording would be monitored. Diamond said that the meanest word is "cow and horse", and when you say you don't want to be a cow and horse, others will think, "Who do you think you are?" The Thorny Fruit juxtaposes personal situations and the power structure: ordinary people have to worry about whether they can still find a job after the age of 35, but there is no corresponding exit mechanism from the power of the country's top leaders.

Host Yuan Li said in the program that the experiences described in these submissions are different, but they all point to the same situation: individuals lack protection in the face of power and systems, and lack the ability to bargain and withdraw.