University of Waterloo student implicated in U.S. spying investigation

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American authorities say they suspect that an Ontario university student had been spying for an unknown person in China by taking photos of aircraft and airport facilities in Toronto and Chicago.

On Aug. 23, U.S. Customs and Border Patrol officers arrested the student, Weiheng Zeng, a Chinese citizen born in 2004, while he attempted to cross the Ambassador Bridge and travel to Detroit, a criminal complaint filed by the FBI states.

Mr. Zeng, an undergraduate at the University of Waterloo who lives in Cambridge, Ont., is being detained in Detroit, where he has been charged with one count of making false statements.

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However, in an interview with The Globe and Mail Wednesday in Mr. Zeng’s family’s home in Cambridge, his twin sister, Meixuan Wang, disputed the allegations as far-fetched. She described her brother as a “really nerdy, silly guy,” who is obsessed with airplanes and has autism spectrum disorder.

“If he’s a spy, I’m Trump’s dad,” said Ms. Wang, who also uses the name Jade.

None of the allegations against Mr. Zeng have been tested in court.

Defence lawyer Celeste Kinney, a public defender who represented Mr. Zeng in court after his arrest, didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. Ms. Wang told The Globe on Wednesday that the family is looking for a lawyer in the U.S. to represent her brother.

An unnamed spokesperson for the Chinese embassy in Ottawa said in an e-mail that it “firmly opposes hyping up the so-called ‘China spy threat’ and the baseless speculations and smears against China.”

Speaking to The Globe on behalf of her family, Ms. Wang said she read the Federal Bureau of Investigation complaint and that it came as a surprise because her brother – known as “Billy” – always shared many details of his life with her.

She said her brother’s autism spectrum disorder can cause people to regard him differently. He may not have realized the trouble he was in when he spoke to U.S. federal agents at the border, Ms. Wang said.

“He doesn’t look at your eyes when he’s speaking with you. He’s not really confident; he doesn’t recognize your emotions,” she said.

Ms. Wang said her family came to Canada from the southwestern Chinese city of Chengdu during the pandemic, when she and her brother were high-school students. Last month, they both celebrated getting their Canadian permanent residency status. She said her brother was studying global business and digital arts at the University of Waterloo but wanted to be a pilot.

Ms. Wang showed The Globe a copy of her brother’s Yellow Zone pass to the London Ontario Air Show from two weeks ago, where he was among thousands of spectators watching U.S. F-22 Raptors take flight.

Shortly after that air show, she said, she got in the family car with her brother, so he could drive her back to a Chicago art school, where she was studying ceramics.

When they tried crossing into the U.S. on Aug. 23, U.S. border guards singled them out for inspection, Ms. Wang said. He was arrested and she said she was held for a full day for questioning by U.S. Customs and the FBI before being let go.

“They said: ‘Does your brother work for the Chinese government? I said, ‘Oh no, of course not,’” she told The Globe.

The FBI’s investigation was triggered after surveillance footage from April 21 showed Mr. Zeng taking pictures of aircraft and facilities at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport, which he is alleged to have taken for a Chinese contact, according to the criminal complaint.

Karen Tride, spokesperson for The Chicago Department of Aviation, which manages the airport, declined to comment on the incident.

The footage also allegedly showed that he drove a van with Ontario licence plates into a FedEx employee parking lot near the airport. At the time, FedEx employees spotted Mr. Zeng in the company’s parking lot taking pictures, walking the fence line and attempting to open locked trailers, the criminal complaint states.

FedEX didn’t respond to a request for comment.

Mr. Zeng was also seen climbing a parked forklift to take more pictures, and he later acknowledged doing so, the document says. It also says that U.S. law enforcement officials were able to tie the van to Mr. Zeng.

On the day of his arrest, Mr. Zeng allegedly drove the same van to the Ambassador Bridge, with two passengers including his sister inside, and told U.S. border officials that he was travelling for a one-day trip to Chicago.

Since the vehicle had been flagged after the April 21 incident, U.S. border officials and the FBI held Mr. Zeng and interviewed him multiple times, the criminal complaint states. It alleges that his story changed in each interview.

Mr. Zeng initially told investigators that he was taking photos for his hobby and for a flight-radar website, according to the complaint.

U.S. officials searched his phone and allegedly found pictures of multiple military aircraft. Investigators also found pictures of Mr. Zeng holding rifle-style firearms and wearing tactical clothing, the FBI alleges. Mr. Zeng told U.S. officials that the weapon was an airsoft gun, the complaint states.

By the third interview, Mr. Zeng allegedly told investigators that a Chinese contact, who sent him an image of a badge with a picture of Tiananmen Square and a Chinese five-star symbol, had communicated with him online since November, 2024, and offered to pay Mr. Zeng money for the photos of specific planes and tail numbers at the Chicago airport.

Mr. Zeng also allegedly said in a sworn statement that he believed that the contact was a member of the Chinese Communist Party and wanted the photos for “research,” the complaint states.

“Zeng claimed that he thought it was ‘cool,’” referring to communicating with the Chinese contact, the complaint states, “and wanted ‘to have the opportunity to work with someone like [agents] at the FBI.’”

Mr. Zeng allegedly told investigators that in October, 2025, the same Chinese contact allegedly directed him to take pictures of the inside of a FedEx facility at Toronto Pearson International Airport. The complaint states that he told the FBI that he only got photos of the building’s exterior.

He also allegedly said that he trespassed earlier that year but was turned away by a FedEx employee, the complaint says.

The airport didn’t respond to a request for comment.

When asked about the investigation, Eric Balsam, spokesperson for the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, said the RCMP is “better positioned” to answer questions about Mr. Zeng.

RCMP spokesperson Camille Boily-Lavoie said the force is aware of the incident but didn’t comment further, directing questions to U.S. authorities.

University of Waterloo spokesperson Anne Galang said in an e-mail the university doesn’t “normally comment on ongoing criminal investigations.”

According to the FBI, Mr. Zeng said he was coached on how to beat surveillance in Canada by using his Chinese-made Huawei cellphone.

“The SIM card, which was from China Telecom, allowed ZENG to by-pass Canadian cellular networks and connect directly with the Chinese provider network to send text messages,” the complaint states.

Mr. Zeng allegedly said he was told to never use his Huawei phone in the United States and was instructed to replace his SIM cards and destroy the old ones “which he did by burning it with a lighter” every four to five months.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Alyse Wu argued in a Detroit court on Aug. 26 that Mr. Zeng should continue to be detained to prevent him from leaving the area.

“He is a foreign resident and a foreign citizen. According to what is alleged in the complaint, his only known tie to this district appears to be using it as a crossing point to enter our country for what appears to be espionage-type activities,” she said at a hearing that day in a Detroit courtroom.

Documents filed in U.S. district court say Mr. Zeng also appeared before a judge on Tuesday in Detroit.

With research from Stephanie Chambers