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NEW YORK – US authorities have charged a New York police officer with espionage, accusing him of gathering information about the city’s Tibetan community for the Chinese government.
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The officer, who worked at a station in the Queens section of the city, was run by members of the Chinese consulate in New York, according to the indictment released Monday.
Born in China, the man had received political asylum in the United States, alleging that the Chinese authorities tortured him because of his Tibetan ethnic origin.
Through his contacts with the Tibetan community, the 33-year-old collected information between 2018 and 2020 on the community’s activities, as well as identifying potential sources of information.
According to the indictment, the man, who is also a United States Army Reserve officer, allowed members of the Chinese consulate to attend events organized by the New York Police Department.
The Chinese authorities allegedly paid him tens of thousands of dollars for his service.
The officer has been charged with four counts, including enlisting in the service of a foreign country on US soil, misrepresentation and obstructing the operation of a public service.
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New York City Police Commissioner Dermot Shea said the officer “violated every oath that he took in this country. One to the United States, one to the United States Army, and a third to this Police Department. “.
He was brought before a judge Monday and detained, a spokesman for the Brooklyn federal prosecutor told AFP.
According to the NYPD, he is currently suspended without pay.
Beijing dismissed the accusation as “completely fabricated.”
“The alleged allegation is full of ‘apparently’, ‘possibly’ and other assumptions and these are completely fabricated charges,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said at a regular news conference on Tuesday.
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Despite the man’s claims, he was tortured in China due to his ethnic origin, the investigation allegedly revealed that both parents were members of the Chinese Communist Party.
“If the courts uphold it, ‘the spy operation’ shows that the Chinese Communist Party is engaged in malicious operations to suppress dissent, not only in Tibet … but anywhere in the world,” said the International Campaign for Tibet, an advocacy group that promotes the freedoms and rights of Tibetans.
Beijing says its troops “peacefully liberated” Tibet in 1951, but many exiled Tibetans accuse the central government of religious repression and erosion of their culture.
The Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, has lived in exile since 1959.
