The South China Morning Post, described by Wikipedia as the newspaper of record in Hong Kong, recently posted a story containing appalling news for Americans: THE CHINESE ARE COMING [Why Chinese migrants to the US risk deadly journey via the jungles of South America, by Shawn Yuan (Archive link here)].
This sprawling 4,000-word account appears at first glance to be a human interest story. It recounts the difficulties encountered by a dozen Chinese men, women and children crossing the Darien Gap on the Panama-Columbia border. I discussed this loophole in Biden Mob PROMOTING Darien Gap Influx! Where Is GOP?
The South China Morning Post editors, however, understood what was important in their story. Their subhead:
Conditions in China are forcing many middle-class Chinese to beat a treacherous path from Ecuador to Mexico and the US for a chance to live the American dream.
Conditions in China are forcing many middle-class Chinese to beat a treacherous path from Ecuador to Mexico and the US for a chance to live the American dream. https://t.co/9ukNokhDh6
— South China Morning Post (@SCMPNews) August 20, 2023
In brief
There are 1.4 billion Chinese, 17.5% of the world’s population. If only a modest proportion decide to move here, America (population 333 million) will be swamped.
The SCMP is candid about these immigrants’ motivation. There are some political dissidents, but
The vast majority of those on this journey have left China for economic reasons. However, unlike other migrants on this journey, including those from Venezuela or Haiti, most Chinese do not face crushing poverty at home.
…China’s current economic environment, especially following the three years of the zero-Covid policy, has all but decimated their aspirations back home.
A woman migrant is quoted:
“I would never ever want to do that again. If things were better in China, who would ever want to go on this painful journey?”
Emphasis added. These are economic migrants.
Of course, by the time they face U.S. Immigration officials, they will all be claiming political asylum.
These illegals’ financial ability to pay their way includes bribes to smugglers, whom they refer to as “Snakeheads” (蛇头) rather than the usual American (or rather Mexican) term of “Coyotes”:
Hailing from the middle or lower-middle classes, Chinese migrants can pay thousands of dollars for flight tickets and all the expenses of the overland journey.
According to the Post’s Yuan, expenses also includes numerous shakedowns by the police in all the countries they cross to reach the American border. The locals are making fortunes off this traffic, and doubtless do not want it stopped.
The business is growing rapidly:
Once a negligible group along this migration trail dominated by Latin Americans, Chinese have recently become one of the main nationalities crossing the Darien Gap. The Panamanian government registered more than 5,000 Chinese migrants making irregular crossings into the country in the first four months of 2023 alone.
This is hopelessly out of date. An AP report dated August 24 says
…[total] crossings hit 300,000 so far this year. In comparison, less than 250,000 migrants crossed in all of 2022.
[Panama eyes new measures as flow of migrants through Darien Gap hits 300,000 so far this year]
The Chinese component of this is apparently ballooning, and the alert if unpleasant entrepreneurs battening on the trade clearly expect much more. In the Gap
…vendors have set up humble shops and eateries, mostly selling food to these hunger-stricken travellers. Squinting his eyes, Cai sees peculiar boards hanging above the modest establishments: “Welcome, Chinese friends!” one sign reads in Chinese characters. Another spot has its full menu in Chinese.
“Look, these people definitely know how to do business,” Cai tells his fellow migrants, laughing. “They know we Chinese are coming, and we don’t speak English so they must have asked someone to write the menus in Chinese for us.”
Thus the Colombian town of Necocli, close to the Panamanian border and the Gap
has become a hotbed for snakeheads, with virtually all migrants having to yield to their demands in order to navigate the jungles of the Darien Gap. To the great relief of many Chinese, the snakeheads have enlisted Chinese nationals or Mandarin-fluent individuals from their own ranks to cater to the demand.
Using WeChat, the messaging app predominantly used by the Chinese community, these snakehead assistants have concocted various packages, costing from US$270 to well over US$1,000, offering distinct routes and equipment.
…the trail through the rainforest has been transformed into an industry monopolised by a select few snakeheads.
Unsurprisingly, Colombian officials are involved in recruiting clients for the smugglers.
Most Chinese start their American odyssey in Ecuador (described as “a country that has extended visa-free entry to Chinese passport holders”).
There is something odd about Ecuador’s relationship with China. Thus the Gatestone Institute recently posted Communist China Helps Itself to Ecuador:
”We are basically being plundered. There are no words. There are no words to describe this tragedy. They [China] have control of the natural resources,” said Ecuadorean investigative journalist and presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio…”China took control of the natural resources. They control the hydroelectric plants, they control the oil, a large part of mining, and they control political power. We’ve been colonized. Again.”
[by Robert Williams, August 29, 2023]
Communist China Helps Itself to Ecuador https://t.co/2JynpmK7GO
— Gatestone Institute (@GatestoneInst) August 29, 2023
Maybe this is evidence the PRC is conniving at this exodus.
Such a thought also arises considering that the South China Morning Post published this story. Since the newspaper was bought by the Chinese Alibaba Group in 2016, the Wikipedia essay linked above says-
Critics including The New York Times, Der Spiegel, and The Atlantic have alleged that the paper is on a mission to promote China’s soft power abroad. [Links courtesy of Wikipedia]
Could it be that China has decided to dump its malcontents and economically marginalized on America, the way most Latin American countries have done?
And perhaps China would like to follow Mexico’s example: Mexican Foreign Minister Boosts Mexican Fifth Column On D.C. Visit, Fawned On By Blinken.
In any case, in the immortal words of President Trump, they are not sending their best. The group profiled by the SCMP included a 58-year-old man with chronic asthma, another with chronic heart disease, and a 4-year-old child. All are counting on the U.S. taxpayer’s largesse.
Americans have a generally favorable impression of Chinese immigrants. But they bring serious faults. Despite high average intelligence and several thousand years of civilization, China has never been able to develop a political system other than despotism, scarcely ever benign. And, as I discussed in Kirkegaard Shows The Chinese Outliers In Dishonesty—U.S. Relationship, Immigration Policy Must Be Reassessed , the Chinese appear to have serious moral flaws by Western standards, including, in regions such as Fujian, a chilling willingness to sell their children into prostitution.
At present, under Biden, there is nothing to stop this influx rapidly becoming millions.
Will America then still be America?
The obvious solution: the U.S should seize the Darien Gap.
We seized Afghanistan, didn’t we?
WHERE IS GOP?
Email Patrick Cleburne.
