Ontario student accused in U.S. of taking airport photos for Chinese official

An Ontario university student, Weiheng Zeng, has been arrested in the United States on counter-intelligence charges after allegedly taking photos at airports in Toronto and Chicago at the request of someone he believed to be a Chinese government official. According to an FBI affidavit, Zeng, a Chinese citizen studying at the University of Waterloo, was initially flagged at Chicago's O'Hare airport in April for suspicious behavior, including taking photos, climbing a forklift, and attempting to open locked trailers at a FedEx facility.

He was later linked to a vehicle at the facility during the incident. When Zeng attempted to re-enter the U.S. with the same vehicle on August 23, he was questioned by border agents and later by the FBI. Zeng reportedly gave conflicting accounts during the interviews, eventually admitting that he had been hired to take photos of FedEx facilities in O'Hare and Toronto's Pearson airport by a Chinese contact he believed to be a government security official. Zeng has been charged with making false statements.

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