ICE Arrests Restaurant Owner Accused Of Spying For China

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U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arrested the owner of a New Jersey sushi restaurant accused of spying for China.

Ming Xi Zhang, the 61-year-old owner of Ya Ya Noodles in Montgomery Township, New Jersey, was arrested on March 24th in Newark and placed in an ICE detention center.

From the New York Post:

Zhang was convicted in April 2024 of acting as an unregistered agent of the Chinese government and sentenced to three years’ probation. In May 2021, he pleaded guilty to having served as an agent of China in 2016 without notifying the U.S. Attorney General.

ICE says he legally entered the U.S. in 2000 but later “violated the terms of his lawful admission.”

“Any illegal alien conducting activities related to espionage, sabotage or export control against the United States is subject to deportation,” said ICE Newark Field Office Director John Tsoukaris.

Zhang met with Chinese security officials in the Bahamas in 2016 and delivered $35,000 to an unnamed individual in New Jersey, according to NJ.com. He also admitted to twice hosting a Chinese government agent at his Princeton home that fall.

He’s being held at the Elizabeth Detention Center awaiting immigration proceedings, a worker at his restaurant told the Post on Saturday.

Per NJ.com:

According to federal court records, the elder Zhang was sentenced in April 2024 to three years of probation and fined $10,000 by U.S. District Judge Michael A. Shipp. That concluded a case that’s allegations dated to nearly a decade ago.

The foreign agent charge stemmed from April 2016, when Zhang met in the Bahamas with representatives of the Chinese Ministry of State Security on multiple occasions, according to his written plea agreement.

Those agents directed Zhang to obtain $35,000 and provide it to “another individual” who was not named in the paperwork. A month later, Zhang gave the cash as instructed during a meeting in Skillman, the neighborhood in Montgomery where his restaurant is located.

Zhang also admitted to twice hosting an agent of the Chinese government at his Princeton home that fall.

Court records offered few further details, and did not reveal whether others were also prosecuted. They show Zhang cooperated with authorities, waiving an indictment and pleading guilty in May 2021, a month after the charges were filed.



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