Tibetan policeman in New York charged with acting as foreign agent for China
- The officer and army reservist is accused of hiding his Beijing connections in surveillance attempt of city’s ethnic community
- Indictment includes accusations of wire fraud, false statements and obstructing national security background check
A US federal court has charged an ethnic Tibetan New York police officer who was born in China with acting as a foreign agent.
Baimadajie Angwang, a 33-year-old naturalised US citizen, is accused of hiding his Beijing connections as part of an effort to surveil Tibetans living in the city.
He was charged on Saturday with acting as an unregistered foreign agent for “reporting to [People’s Republic of China] government officials about the activities of Chinese citizens in the New York area and developing intelligence sources within the Tibetan community in the United States”, according to a US Justice Department announcement.
The charges include wire fraud, making false statements and obstruction of a national security background check by the US Defence Department. The indictment was unsealed on Monday.
The indictment includes excerpts of numerous phone conversations between Angwang, who is also a member of the US Army Reserve (USAR), and an official at China’s New York consulate who “is believed to have been assigned to the ‘China Association for Preservation and Development of Tibetan Culture,’ a division of the PRC’s United Front Work Department”.
“Let them know you have recruited one in the police department,” Angwang said in a phone conversation with the consular official in November 2018, according to the indictment.
