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An Ontario university student has been arrested in a counter-intelligence investigation in the United States after allegedly taking photos at airports in Toronto and Chicago at the request of someone he believed to be a Chinese government official.
In an affidavit filed in Michigan court, an FBI agent says Weiheng Zeng, a Chinese citizen studying at the University of Waterloo, was initially flagged by authorities in connection with an incident at Chicago’s O’Hare airport in April.
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The agent says a man was seen taking photos, climbing a forklift and trying to open locked trailers at a FedEx facility at the airport on April 21, about 10 days after Zeng drove into the U.S. via the Ambassador Bridge.
The affidavit says Zeng was later linked to a car that was at the facility during the incident.
When Zeng tried to drive into the U.S. again with the same car on Aug. 23, the agent says the student was pulled aside for a series of interviews first with border agents and later with the FBI.
The agent says Zeng gave conflicting accounts over the course of the interviews, eventually telling the FBI that he was hired to take photos of FedEx facilities at 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.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 2, 2026.
