A 33-year-old New York City cop and U.S. Army Reservist named Baimadajie Angwang was arrested Monday on federal charges of acting as a foreign agent for the Peoples Republic of China, according to authorities.
Angwang, a native of the autonomous region of Tibet in China who traveled to the U.S. on a cultural exchange visa, has reportedly communicated the activities of other Tibetans in the greater New York area to Chinese consulate officials in New York.
Authorities have stated that Angwang “eventually sought asylum in the United States on the basis that he had allegedly been arrested and tortured in the [People’s Republic of China] due partly to this Tibetan ethnicity,” after overstaying a second visa.
As early as 2014, Angwang began developing a relationship with an official at the Chinese consulate and would go on to form ties with an additional official he called “Boss” and acted as his handler.
Court documents reveal that Angwang lives in Nassau County, Long Island, and is a Staff Sergeant in the Army Reserve, stationed at Fort Dix, New Jersey as part of the Airborne Civil Affairs Battalion. As a cop, he serves at the 111th precinct in northeastern Queens.
Angwang has strong ties to the Chinese Communist Party
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York is handling Angwang’s case and has sought to prosecute the NYPD cop, saying in a criminal complaint that “while acting at the direction and control of PRC officials, has, among other things … reported on the activities of ethnic Tibetans, and others, in the New York metropolitan area to the Consulate”.
