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A booking photo of Lu Jing, a Chinese national who trespassed at US President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort on Wednesday. Photo: Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office via AP

Chinese woman Lu Jing charged after trespassing at Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort

  • Told to leave, 56-year-old intruder returns to take photos, and is arrested and found to have an expired visa
  • In previous case, a Shanghai businesswoman served eight months in prison for trespassing, after indicating she wanted to meet Trump to discuss deals
The latest Chinese intruder at US President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida appeared in court on Thursday, with a judge appointing a public defender as her lawyer and ordering that she remain in custody.

Lu Jing, 56, is charged with misdemeanour counts of loitering or prowling and resisting arrest without violence. A judge granted US$2,000 bail but ordered Lu continue to be held because she is in the US on an expired visa.

The judge also issued an order that Lu stay away from Mar-a-Lago, located on the wealthy Palm Beach barrier island.

Palm Beach police say Lu was confronted by the private club’s security officers at the club’s main entrance on Wednesday and told to leave, but she returned to take photographs, walking down to a service gate.

According to a police affidavit, when security personnel approached, Lu fled on foot and was eventually apprehended in the tony Worth Avenue shopping district in Palm Beach.

When officers approached her, Lu “balled up her hands into fists, crossed her arms on her chest, began screaming ‘no, no, no’ and pulling away from me,” one officer wrote in the affidavit.

After that, Lu was handcuffed and taken into custody. The affidavit says Lu refused to let investigators view the photos on her cellphone and asked immediately for a lawyer, cutting off further questioning.

Neither Trump nor his family members were at Mar-a-Lago when the incident took place. They are expected to arrive by this weekend and spend the holidays there.

Months after her arrest at Mar-a-Lago, Zhang Yujing remains a cipher

In Beijing, Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said he was not familiar with the Lu case.

“What I can tell you is that the Chinese government always requires that Chinese nationals overseas abide by local laws and regulations and not engage in any kind of illegal activities,” he told reporters.

Lu’s arrest follows that in March of Zhang Yujing, a 33-year-old Shanghai businesswoman, who gained access to Mar-a-Lago while carrying a laptop, phones and other electronic gear.

That led to speculation she might be a spy, but she was never charged with espionage and text messages she exchanged with a trip organiser indicated she was a fan of the president and wanted to meet him or his family to discuss possible deals.

Zhang was found guilty in September of trespassing and lying to Secret Service agents and was sentenced last month to time served. She is being held for deportation.

In another Mar-a-Lago trespassing case, a University of Wisconsin student was arrested in November 2018 after he mixed in with guests being admitted to the club. He pleaded guilty in May and received probation.

In both of those cases, Trump and his family were staying at the resort, but no one was ever threatened.

With the Atlantic Ocean to the east and Florida’s Intracoastal Waterway to the west, Mar-a-Lago sits on the Palm Beach barrier island, a 128-room, 62,500 sq ft (5,800 square metre) symbol of opulence and power.

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The Trump family business doubled the initiation fee to US$200,000 after the president was elected in 2016. He spends many weekends between November and April there, mingling with the club’s 500 members, who pay US$14,000 in annual fees.

Trump bought Mar-a-Lago from the foundation of the late socialite and cereal heiress Marjorie Merriweather Post in 1985. He and first lady Melania Trump held their 2005 wedding reception inside the 20,000 sq ft ballroom soon after its completion.

Federal agencies spend about US$3.4 million per Trump visit, much of it on security, according to an analysis of four 2017 trips by the US Government Accountability Office.

The Secret Service does not decide who is invited or welcome at the resort; that responsibility belongs to the club. Agents do screen guests outside the perimeter before they are screened again inside.

This article appeared in the South China Morning Post print edition as: Second Chinese woman arrested after illegally entering Trump resort
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