FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: September 21, 2020
CONTACT:
Dorjee Tseten, Dorjee@studentsforafreetibet.org, +1 (646) 753-3889
INFILTRATION OF THE NYPD IS A WAKE-UP CALL TO ALL THOSE WHO DOUBT CHINA’S REACH.
According to news reports, an NYPD officer named Baimadajie Angwang has been arrested for spying on local Tibetan communities in New York for the Chinese government [1]. New York is home to the largest Tibetan diaspora community outside of Asia. Many of these Tibetans have experienced persecution, displacement, statelessness, and other brutalities at the hands of the Chinese government.
“Tibetans have long known the Chinese government is spying on our communities, even in a free country like the United States, and this incident shows the lengths to which Beijing would go to undermine the Free Tibet movement,” said Dorjee Tseten, Executive Director of Students for a Free Tibet. “That a Chinese spy targeting Tibetans could infiltrate the NYPD, and even the U.S. military, should be a wake-up call for all our leaders – at the federal, state, and local level – about the alarming depth and reach of China’s espionage operations.”
“Because this individual was in the NYPD, he held a position of authority and influence that he exploited to advance China’s political agenda and to try to stop the Tibetan community from engaging in political activities for the cause of Tibetan freedom.”
Hundreds of thousands of Tibetans have been killed as a direct result of Chinese occupation, since China’s invasion of Tibet in 1949. Tibet is one of the most heavily-restricted countries in the world. In March 2020, Freedom House ranked Tibet as the 2nd “least free” place in the world for the fifth consecutive year; only Syria ranks as less free [2].
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