China’s propaganda masters are dismissing the report in the New York Times that Chinese diplomats penetrated the New York Police Department to spy on Tibetan communites in the New York area. But it is perfectly consistent with other behaviors of Chinese diplomats in the United States. In fact, I spent an entire chapter in The New Art of War on how Chinese-style control systems are being replicated across the United States.
First the details about the arrest of a Chinese-born Tibetan, Baimadajie Angwang, who worked for the NYPD. Since at least 2018, Angwang has communicated regularly with two consular officials in New York, including one whose department was responsible for “neutralizing sources of potential opposition to the policies and authority” of the Chinese government, prosecutors alleged. Angwang told one Chinese diplomat that they should visit a new Tibetan community center in Queens, which would provide intelligence assets.
The Chinese have killed or imprisoned millions of Tibetans, on par with what they are doing in Xingjiang against the Uighurs and on par with their effort to force Mongolians to abandon their language. But apparently that is not enough. They have to track and monitor Tibetans who have fled their homeland.
This is what Chinese diplomats do. They coordinate with Chinese Student and Scholar Associations at American universities to keep track of what some 360,000 Chinese students are doing and who is saying what to whom.
Chinese diplomats also work with the National Association for China’s Peaceful Unification, which targets Chinese-Americans. They want to lure Chinese-Americans into cooperating with Beijing. Since writing the book, I’ve learned that Chinese diplomats also cooperate with the Thousand Talents Program, which is Beijing’s effort to identify and recruit technical talents around the world and persuade them to move to China.
The most gripping personal story I told in the book is about Rose Tang, a survivor of the Tiananmen Square Massacre in 1989. She fled China and married an American. But even 30 years after the massacre, she told me that apparent Chinese government operatives target her cell phone and other communications. They dispatch agents who attempt to befriend her and ask pointed questions. Meanwhile back home, parents of kids killed at Tiananmen are kept from visiting their graves. Security goons routinely interfere.
So would Chinese diplomats attempt to subvert the NYPD and spy on Tibetans? Absolutely. In a heart beat. That’s the kind of thing they do for a living.
