In a highly-upvoted Quora answer, Godfree Roberts quotes US Ambassador Chas. H. Freeman [sic]:
The CIA programs in Tibet, which were very effective in destabilizing it, did not succeed in Xinjiang. There were similar efforts made with the Uyghurs during the Cold War that never really got off the ground. In both cases you had religion waved as a banner in support of a desire for independence or autonomy which is, of course, is anathema to any state. I do believe that people who live in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones applies here. I am part American Indian and those people are not here (in the US) in the numbers they once were because of severe genocidal policies on the part of the European majority.
Chas W. Freeman, Jr. was the US Ambassador to Saudi Arabia in 1990-1992 and Assistant Secretary of Defense for Regional Affairs, then International Security Affairs, from 1993 to 1994.
Roberts cites an interview from a 2018 SupChina podcast.
I haven’t found any confirmation that he was in fact on the show.
Another Quora answerer argues that, because Godfree Roberts supports the Chinese Communist Party, it is a fictional person created by the Chinese government.
Although CIA involvement in Tibet, supporting separatists, etc., is a matter of public record now, it seems, if true, that Mr. Freeman would be the highest ranking former US official to link those activities with the Xinjiang conflict.
Is this an authentic quote from Chas Freeman?