Red Dawn redux
China’s boastful narrative as one of the world’s leading superpowers and durable economic powerhouses contradicts the absurd reality on the ground and flies in the face of the scandalous global exodus by its people
No, this piece is not about an armed invasion, like the 1984 and 2012 hit movies in which a bunch of communist soldiers take over parts of rural America.
Nor is this about a movie redux in the making.
No, this one is about a real-life phenomenon, a jawdropping occurrence unheard of just a few years ago: the staggering increase in the number of illegal US border crossings by people originating from China.
Yes, China, as in former Red China. The Water Cannon Dragon of Asia. The New Best Friend of Russia.
According to data from the US Department of Homeland Security, the number of Chinese illegal immigrants crossing the border from Mexico jumped from an average of about 1,500 per year during the past decade to more than 37,000 in 2023 — a mind-boggling development considering the prohibitive distance between China and the US mainland and the deteriorating political and economic relations between the two countries.
Not an armed invasion by any means but an invasion nonetheless.
Although the vast majority of illegal border crossers last year originated from Latin and South American countries, experts believe that the continuous influx of Chinese migrants, unless promptly stopped, will soon make them the fastest-growing, illegally-crossing ethnic group in the country.
Partly to blame for the multi-continental exodus, according to Chinese migrants interviewed at the border, is the impact of the Covid-19 crisis on China’s fragile economy, whose widely anticipated post-pandemic rebound is stuttering badly, compounded by the constrictively worsening government policies of the ruling Communist Party.
Indeed, the combination of free speech curtailment and civil society repression, along with the pandemic-era iron-fist restrictions, have brought about widespread dissension and desperation among the masses, causing many non-wealthy Chinese to flee the country and embark on dangerous journeys spanning multiple continents in pursuit of greener pastures.
Per news reports, most overland journeys commence in the Ecuadorian capital city of Quito, which documented around 13,000 Chinese nationals entering the country in 2022.
The number tripled to more than 45,000 in 2023.
Thus, Ecuador, a country that allows visafree entry to Chinese nationals, became the unofficial gateway for onward travels along the territories of Colombia, Panama, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras, and Guatemala to the US border country of Mexico.
According to CNN, migration costs range from a “do-ityourself” low of $3,000 to a “premium package” high of over $20,000, the latter inclusive of flights, hotels, and transportation costs to the US-Mexican border, including potential multipleentry visas to Japan and Mexico to bypass dangerous treks through the rainforests.
Clearly, China’s boastful narrative as one of the world’s leading superpowers and durable economic powerhouses contradicts the absurd reality on the ground and flies in the face of the scandalous global exodus by its people.
Indeed, it smacks of mordant irony, if not otherwise sardonic, that the Philippines, a less affluent neighbor of China and its perennially bullied backyard playmate, has become a dumping ground of sort for the Chinese unemployed (some with shady connections), swamping the China-outlawed POGO industry in the country.
But the supreme irony of all, given China’s strict border policy against non-citizens, is its government’s refusal to accept thousands of Chinese nationals ordered deported back to China for their illegal entry violations in the US — a situation unacceptable to China had the reverse happened.
Justified or not, this belligerent posturing has provided certain anti-immigrant groups in the US potent ammunition to accuse China of building an army of undercover spies in the country under the guise of illegal migration.
Who knows, maybe those Red Dawn movies are not fantasy, after all.