An Ontario student accused of working for someone he believed to be a Chinese government official has pleaded not guilty in a United States court to making false statements.
Documents from a Michigan court show Weiheng Zeng entered his plea at his arraignment on Monday.
Zeng, a Chinese citizen who was studying at the University of Waterloo, was arrested after allegedly taking photos of Toronto’s Pearson airport and Chicago’s O’Hare airport at the request of a mysterious Chinese contact he’d met on an online forum.
In an affidavit filed earlier this year, an FBI agent said Zeng was first flagged by authorities in connection with an incident at O’Hare in April, when a man was seen taking photos, climbing a forklift and trying to open locked trailers at a FedEx facility.
The affidavit said Zeng, who had driven into the United States about 10 days before the incident, was later linked to a minivan seen at the site.
When Zeng tried to drive into the country with the same vehicle in August, he was pulled aside for several interviews, during which he allegedly gave conflicting statements, it said.
The allegations have not yet been tested in court.
Zeng initially said he took photos of planes during his trip to Chicago, but when border agents went through his phone, they found photos of aircraft and military planes as well as some of Zeng and others in tactical clothes holding firearms, the document said.
He told the agents he took photos of model aircraft for a flight radar website and denied having any kind of military training, it said.
In a second interview with border agents, Zeng said he took photos of planes landing at O’Hare from a public parking lot, but later said he took pictures from a forklift at a FedEx facility, the affidavit said. He also said he’d previously trespassed at a FedEx facility at Pearson airport but had been caught, the document said.
Zeng first mentioned a Chinese contact in his third interview, and his story continued to change as he gave more details, the document said.
At first, he said the contact reached out through a website for aviation spotters and asked him to take photos of specific planes for research, the affidavit said.
Then he admitted that was a cover story provided by the contact, who actually wanted information on transportation logistics and wanted photos of particular locations around airports, the agent alleged.
Zeng also said the contact sent him a photo of a badge and videos of scenes only security officials could access, and that he suspected the contact was connected to the Chinese Communist Party, the document said.
His trial is set to begin in January, according to a schedule filed with the court.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 10, 2026.
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