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Charges against NYPD officer accused of spying for China to be dropped

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Former NYPD Officer Baimadajie Angwang accused for spying for China in an undated photo(Photo/New York Post)

By Tenzin Nyidon 

DHARAMSHALA, Jan. 20: US federal prosecutors have asked the charges against the former New York Police Department officer, Baimadajie Angwang be dismissed, according to a court document. The move to drop charges against the former officer came about two years after Angwang was accused to be an ‘unregistered agent’ of providing information about ethnic Tibetans living in New York to the Chinese authorities and several other federal crimes, according to court documents.

The military veteran was charged with offences that include acting as an ‘illegal agent’ for the Chinese government, wire fraud, making false statements and obstruction of an official proceeding in September 2020, court document shows. In addition to being charged with acting as an unregistered agent, the indictment includes excerpts of Angwang acting at the ‘direction and control of PRC officials’ reporting the activities of Tibetans in New York and using his position at the NYPD to give the Chinese consulate officials access of the department at least 108 times between August 2014 and March 2020.

Meanwhile, the indictment also alleged Angwang’s numerous telephonic conversations with a contact at China’s New York consulate, 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, which is tasked to strengthen adherence to the party within and outside China.

The 2020 arrest was one of several federal cases brought against Chinese Americans connected to the Trump Administration’s “China’s initiative,” a Department of Justice focused on “countering Chinese national security threats.” In February 2022, under President Biden’s administration, the program was scrapped after it fuelled a string of criticism and bias against innocent Chinese Americans.

Ahead of the trial scheduled for July, the prosecutors of the trial have requested the judge that the indictment against Officer Angling be dismissed “in the interest of justice, to dismiss the indictment without prejudice” as well as the result of the emergence of “additional information bearing on the charges,” prosecutors said in the document. A federal judge must sign a court order to officially dismiss the indictment.

The expected dismissal of Angwang’s case “does not mean that the Chinese government is not undertaking activities to monitor Tibetans in diaspora,” the International Campaign for Tibet, the US-based advocacy group, said. Meanwhile, the spokesman for ICT, Ashwin Verghese commented, “the lack of clear details about why prosecutors have moved to dismiss the case do not negate the fact that Officer Angwang had engaged in close interaction with Chinese diplomats in New York.” Regardless, the office of the Brooklyn US Attorney declined to comment. 

6 Responses

  1. Remember, this man is still a spy who has done lot of damage in Tibetan community regardless. He infiltrated NY New Jersey Tibetan community and actively playing his game until he was caught by FBI. There might have been deal between CCP and US because he is not deemed a national security threat. He is still a traitor and should never be trusted.

  2. How did he get secret level clearance from USA govt ? How is it possible to lie on application form and get away with it to join police ?

    Then many Tibetan ex drug addicts and gambling addicts an S I K Yin New York should apply to join NYPD

  3. He is probably working undercover for Niebuhr’s FBI. US interests and economic ties in China ever since the 70s, probably is the root cause of discontent among the Tibetan diaspora. To balance that out, you have people like Nancy Pelosi and actors from Tinseltown making appearances in McLeodganj. There is a notable difference between helping the well connected and helping the rest who allow the well-connected to be such.

  4. His methods are foolish and if he is one, he is a third rate secret agent. Therefore FBI did not put him in jail but et him free.

    He sent money three times to Tibet to his father, and busted several times, despite claiming asylum status from china as a Tibetan refugee. But strangely he won Cop of the Month Award and is said to have secret level clearance from security department. But that secret level clearance was gained after Pema Dargay Ngawang lied in the application form and electronically submitted it. He is actually a khampa boy from Nyarong near china border.

    I think there is something deeper there. One might read “ why an NYPD officer from Tibet was accused as a Chinese spy ?” Available at https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/sep/29/tibetan-diaspora-spying-new-york-china

  5. “108 times” he reported to the Chinese Consulate about the whereabouts, our social security numbers and records of Tibetans inside nyc’s jurisdictions and still they have the audacity to plead innocence. What were FBI doing for the 108 times he spied on us. No wonder my gmail got havked by the ccp gov’t during my involvement in sft back in ny days. Excellent reporting!!!

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