A former NYPD officer once accused, then cleared, of spying for China has landed on the other side of the courtroom. On Wednesday, as opening statements kicked off in Brooklyn federal court, ex-officer Baimadajie Angwang sat at the defense table as an investigator for defendant Lu Jianwang, who has pleaded not guilty. Outside the courthouse, supporters waved small American flags and hoisted signs as the high-profile Chinatown "police station" case got underway.
Federal prosecutors told jurors the office at the center of the case was an undeclared outpost of China’s Ministry of Public Security that quietly opened in early 2022 inside a Chinatown nonprofit and was used to identify and pressure dissidents, according to The Associated Press. They say the space took up a floor at 107 East Broadway and that Lu and others deleted WeChat messages and other records after learning about an FBI probe. Opening statements zeroed in on whether the evidence shows a covert policing operation or a neighborhood hub offering routine community services.
The man now working alongside Lu, former officer Angwang, was arrested in 2020 and spent months in federal custody before prosecutors abruptly dropped their case in January 2023, according to CBS New York. He later faced an NYPD disciplinary process and was fired, and his lawyers say he is suing the department. Court filings and press reports indicate he is now part of Lu’s defense team, helping investigate the government’s allegations.
NYPD officials say Angwang was disciplined after he declined to answer questions at an internal affairs hearing, where an investigator had prepared more than 1,700 questions, and Commissioner Edward Caban ordered his firing in January 2024, The Associated Press reported. Angwang’s legal team has blasted the internal process as overly broad and has pushed for his reinstatement. His return to the spotlight at the defense table drew notice as prosecutors sketched out what they call a campaign of transnational repression.
Lu’s attorney, John Carman, countered that federal agents misread ordinary community work and argued that a report from an advocacy group, not spycraft, set off the FBI inquiry. “Harry Lu is not a spy,” he told jurors, according to New York Daily News. The defense maintains the office focused on helping people with driver-license paperwork and running social activities like ping-pong and mahjong, not policing critics of Beijing. Prosecutors say the records, including alleged admissions and deleted messages, will tell another story.
Charges and What They Mean
Federal prosecutors have charged Lu with conspiring to act as an agent of a foreign government and with obstruction of justice, alleging the Chinatown office operated at the direction of China’s Fuzhou Ministry of Public Security and that evidence was deleted after an FBI search in October 2022, according to a press release from the U.S. Attorney's Office, EDNY. The office noted that the foreign-agent charge carries a maximum of five years in prison and the obstruction count up to twenty years. The same release outlines the allegations in detail and notes that the case is being handled by the National Security and Cybercrime Section.
Courtroom Scene
Inside the Brooklyn courthouse, Lu listened through an interpreter while his lawyers tried to cast the clash as a dispute over bureaucratic paperwork rather than espionage. Angwang sat close by as a visible member of the defense team. Outside, community members turned out to show support as the case stepped fully into the public eye, the Brooklyn Eagle reported. In the days ahead, jurors are expected to hear from people prosecutors describe as potential targets of the alleged overseas outpost.
Why The Case Matters
The indictment is part of a broader push by U.S. officials to confront what they describe as “transnational repression,” meaning covert efforts by foreign security services to monitor and intimidate exiles abroad. Policy analysts say the rise of overseas service stations raises thorny legal and diplomatic issues, according to analysis from Brookings. Convictions on agent-of-a-foreign-government charges typically require proof that defendants acted under the direction or control of a foreign state, while obstruction counts turn on whether evidence was destroyed in order to hinder investigators, points highlighted in federal court filings. The outcome here will test how judges and juries navigate the line between law enforcement, community services and First Amendment protections.
The trial is expected to stretch on for days or even weeks as both sides call witnesses. Chen Jinping, who pleaded guilty in December 2024, remains free on bond and is set for sentencing on May 30, according to local reporting. Jurors will have to sift through documents, witness recollections and deleted-message trails as attorneys present dueling narratives of the same set of events. For many in Chinatown, the case has become a closely watched fight over where foreign influence ends and local civic life begins.
