The Epoch Times, a newspaper founded by Chinese dissidents, says it’s likely that the Chinese woman arrested at Mar-a-Lago on Saturday is a spy for the communist Chinese.

Yujing Zhang was arrested by the Secret Service and charged with two crimes: making false statements and illegally entering a restricted area. Agents found in her possession two passports, a laptop computer, an external drive, and a thumb drive that had malware on it.

She’d been initially admitted to the club, as a staff member could not understand her and believed that she was related to another club member,  according to the criminal complaint filed with the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida.

Zhang had said she was there for an event, and showed Mar-a-Lago employees an invitation that was written in Chinese. She told another Mar-a-Lago employee that she was there to use the pool.

Secret Service agents subsequently questioned her and she became verbally aggressive, while all of a sudden exhibiting an excellent command of English.

“When it comes to Chinese espionage, there are many types of spies,” Epoch Times reporter Joshua Philipp wrote in an April 3 article for the Epoch Times entitled, “China’s Web of Spies and the Breach at Mar-a-Lago.”

“While we can’t say anything for certain, Zhang fits the profile of someone with the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) United Front operations,” he wrote. “Yet, it’s unlikely Zhang was an official spy, in the way we in the United States would typically think of a spy.”

He went on to write that the main piece of evidence to support the theory that Zhang is a spy, of sorts, is the invitation she presented at Mar-a-Lago for a “United Nations Friendship Event” between the United States and China that she said she’d come from Shanghai to attend.

There was no such event taking place that day at Mar-a-Lago.

Zhang had told agents that the event was organized by the United Nations Chinese-American Association. But there is no such association affiliated with the United Nations.

Chinese ‘associations’ such as the one Zhang named, Philipp wrote, are usually under the control of the United Front Department of the Chinese Communist Party. This department is one of the party’s main organizations dedicated to espionage.

The Financial Times wrote in a 2017 story that people are often invited to a United Front banquet or reception, often by an organization that has ‘friendship’ in its name.

“These United Front networks are then used by the CCP to extend its influence into overseas Chinese communities, and to influence local politics in targeted countries, pressure Chinese dissidents living abroad, recruit people as low-tier spies, and to spread CCP propaganda,” writes Philipp.

The Miami Herald reported on Thursday that the FBI is now investigating possible Chinese spying on Trump and Mar-a-Lago, and have focused their attention on Li “Cindy” Yang, the owner of the Florida massage parlor who has attended events at Mar-a-Lago and promoted events at Mar-a-Lago online to Chinese citizens. The reporters write that on the day she was arrested, Zhang was headed to an event that had been advertised online by Yang and her associate, Charles Lee.

While Zhang’s maneuverings to enter Mar-a-Lago may seem clumsy and even bizarre, it may be because Americans don’t understand the way the Chinese government operates.

In communist China, spying for the government is required of all citizens, according to China’s 2017 National Intelligence Law. There are enticements for those who comply, and there’s no opting out.

“Spying for the state is a duty of the citizens and corporations of China under the law, much like paying taxes,” wrote Yi-Zheng Lian in a March 13, 2019, Op-Ed in the New York Times.

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Margaret Menge

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