GARDEN CITY, NY (AP) – One day in September 2020, New York City Police Officer Baimadajie Angwang kissed his toddler goodbye and was about to drive to work when he was surrounded FBI agents armed with rifles.
You’re under arrest, the bewildered cop said. The charge: Being a secret agent for China.
Angwang, a former US Marine, spent six months in a federal detention center before being released on bail pending trial for providing information about New York’s Tibetan community to Chinese consulate officials in New York.
Then, just as suddenly, it was over. Federal prosecutors in Brooklyn dropped the charges on January 19, saying only that they were acting “in the interests of justice.” They did not explain further.
Now Angwang says he wants to be reinstated in the police force, which suspended him with pay while the case was pending. But more than that, he wants answers.
“Why did you start investigating me?” Why did you drop all charges? said Angwang, who was born in Tibet but was granted political asylum in the United States as a teenager.
“We want an explanation. We demand it because you owe it to me,” he said in an interview at his lawyer’s office. “You can’t just put me in jail for six months and ruin my name, ruin my reputation and give all this stress to my family and friends and then you say, ‘in the interests of justice.’ Are you just gonna leave it like that?
The Chinese Communist Party ruled Tibet for seven decades, and China has claimed a vast swath of the Himalayas as part of its territory since the 13th century. But the relationship has been strained, with many Tibetans – some in exile – seeking independence.
The initial accusation against Angwang was that he began providing information to Chinese officials about Tibetan independence groups in New York in 2018.
In court documents, prosecutors said Angwang was a threat to national security. He was charged with being an unregistered foreign agent, making false statements to federal investigators, obstructing justice and wire fraud. There was no allegation of espionage, a more serious charge.
In building his initial case against Angwang, prosecutors argued he provided intelligence on ethnic Tibetans who might cooperate with Chinese officials and advised them on how to extend ‘soft power’ from China to New York.
Specifically, the government said it was seeking a give and take deal that would give him a 10-year visa to his home country in exchange for surveillance information and access to the police department.
The case hinged in part on recorded phone calls, some in which authorities said Angwang referred to a consular official as his “big brother” and “boss.”
Angwang told The Associated Press that his words were mistranslated from Mandarin or taken out of context. He said he became superficially friendly with the Chinese authorities because he needed a visa to visit his native country, so his parents and other relatives could finally meet his daughter.
The judge presiding over the case demanded answers about why the charges were dismissed, but federal prosecutors have refused to release classified information that could have provided clues.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office in Brooklyn declined to comment.
The judge agreed to dismiss the case without prejudice, meaning the government could press charges again, a possibility that Angwang faces but his lawyer suggests is unlikely.
The lawyer, John Carman, speculated that his client had been caught up in the Trump administration’s efforts to stamp out Chinese espionage in American institutions, including the economy, academics and other facets of life. public. Angwang argues that there were undertones of racism targeting people with ties to China.
“I think our criminal justice system sometimes goes wrong when it has a publicity aspect and when it has a political aspect. And this case had both,” Carman said.
Angwang first visited the United States as a teenager on a cultural exchange visa. He returned to Tibet but later returned to the United States, claiming he had been arrested and beaten by Chinese authorities. He moved in with an uncle in Queens and was granted asylum at age 17.
In his adopted country, Angwang enlisted in the US Marines and served in Afghanistan. After being released, he joined the army reserves and enrolled in the police academy.
He said it was his way of giving back to a country that has been so good to him.
The charges dropped, he says he wants to regain the good graces of his Tibetan community, which remains suspicious.
“I am very proud of my heritage. I love my culture and I love the community,” Angwang said. He said he had been wrongly portrayed as a three-way traitor.
“So I’m a traitor to my hometown?” Am I a traitor to America? I am a traitor to the Tibetan community – of which I have never been a traitor. I have never betrayed anyone – my fellow Tibetans, my fellow Americans, whoever.
Norbu Choezung, the president of the Tibetan Community of New York and New Jersey, a group comprising some 10,000 members of Tibetan descent, remains suspicious. He, too, wants the government to provide more details on why he dropped the case.
“It’s a bit dodgy,” Choezung said. “As a community, we really want to dig deeper into why his charges were dropped and how these things happened.”
U.S. District Judge Eric Komitee, who presided over the case, ended up with questions but said he was glad Angwang’s ordeal was over.
“In some ways a simple case but also in some ways, especially given the landscape of the laws involved, a complicated case,” the judge said, also noting the “fanfare” in which the case was brought.
“It is regrettable, of course, that Mr. Angwang served as much time as he did in pre-trial jail or pre-trial detention,” the judge said, “but better late, as they say. , than ever.”
Bobby Caina Calvan, L’Associated Press
