ICE arrests owner of Montgomery restaurant YaYa Noodles ⋆ Princeton, NJ local news %

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrested Montgomery resident and business owner Ming Xi Zhang on March 24 in Newark and placed him in an ICE detention center.

Ming Xi Zhang, known to many area residents as Sushi John, owns YaYa Noodles, which is located in the Montgomery Shopping Center on Route 206 North in Skillman.

According to ICE, Zhang lawfully entered the United States in June 2000 at Los Angeles International Airport but violated the terms of his lawful admission.

The U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey convicted Zhang last year of illegally acting as an agent of a foreign government without prior notification to the attorney general and sentenced him to three years of probation on April 30, 2024.

Zhang, 61, was born in Qingdao, a city of more than 8 million people in eastern China. He studied electrical engineering at the Ocean University of China, then worked in human resources for the government for about eight years before opening his own restaurant in China. When the Chinese economy declined, he moved to the U.S. He worked at the Jersey Shore before opening his own sushi bar at YaYa Noodles, which is a popular restaurant for local residents. Many residents have reacted to his arrest with shock and outrage.

Krystal Knapp is the founding editor of Planet Princeton. Follow her on Twitter @krystalknapp. She can be reached via email at editor AT planetprinceton.com. Send all letters to the editor and press releases to that email address.