The number of illegal Chinese immigrants in the United States is rising dramatically. The reasons for their escape from China vary. But almost all of them have the same problems when they arrive: How do they continue their journey far from home?
Marcel Grzanna managed to speak to Ma Ju. Ma applied for political asylum in the USA in 2019 – so far without result. He looks after his arriving compatriots in a New Yorker apartment block. He talks about ideologically adjusting to a democratic system, but also about the practical everyday problems and the emotional condition of the new arrivals. Ma’s commitment can hardly be overestimated. After all, a return to China would be dangerous for his compatriots.
Financially dangerous is what investors are currently experiencing with the Star50. The new tech index from Shanghai was supposed to symbolize a new China: driven by innovation and technological breakthroughs. President Xi Jinping personally announced it, but the Shanghai tech index has only gone downhill since its launch.
Joern Petring shows how the Chinese government is trying to stop the stock freefall – and notes that similar measures have already been used in the past. However, state purchases and short-selling restrictions will not provide a quick remedy.
Word about the kindness of wealthy Ma Ju has spread. Ma, a Chinese citizen of the Muslim Hui ethnic group, lives in the United States and has been accommodating Chinese refugees in a rented building in the New York borough of Queens since December last year.
Ma has taken in more than 200 people in the past eleven months: Uyghurs, Hui or Dong, but also numerous members of the dominant Han ethnic group, all of whom have fled their homeland. Sometimes for political reasons, sometimes for economic reasons. At present, 17 people live in the New York shelter, a few more than usual.
All of the residents have entered the United States illegally via the Central American route over the past few months to apply for political asylum. After crossing the border, they were arrested and detained for several days, sometimes several weeks. After their release, the long wait begins. The approval process can take years. Many go to California or New York – hoping to find fellow compatriots and thus a better integration in the more liberal states of the USA.
In Queens, the refugees find time to plan the start of a new life. For those who need a place to stay, Ma provides a bed and adequate food free of charge for two weeks. Those wishing to stay longer must pay a share of the costs. But after two months, they must make room for a new refugee.
Ma offers advice, arranges jobs or contacts with lawyers who support the asylum process. “I inform people about the rights they enjoy in the USA, but also about where their rights end,” Ma told Table.Media in a video call. Many only slowly understand what it means to live in a democratic nation. “Some need a while before they dare to invoke their rights. They are not used to that from China,” says Ma.
Ma himself also applied for political asylum in the USA in 2019 – so far without result. He arrived from Dubai by plane with a visa in his passport and plenty of money. He made his fortune as an entrepreneur in the mining industry. Returning to China is out of the question for him because, as an influential Muslim businessman, he was suspected of supporting Uyghur terrorists in 2009.
According to the non-governmental organization Political Asylum USA, the chances of a positive decision are actually not too bad for Chinese citizens. Political repression and a lack of religious freedom are accepted reasons for wanting to flee from China to the US. The legal network Nolo advises applicants to clearly state how their personal “protected ground” was violated or threatened and why the asylum seeker fears returning to China.
In fact, the number of Chinese asylum seekers in the US has risen dramatically recently. The US authorities reported more than 4,000 arrests of Chinese nationals in September – 70 percent more than in August. A total of 24,000 have been apprehended since fall 2022.
Media reports suggest that many refugees have left their homeland for economic and political reasons. Many complain that bureaucracy and security authorities have left them no room to help themselves. The brutal enforcement of the pandemic measures has also increased the number of refugees.
“In recent years, many people have realized how mercilessly the system treats them,” says Chinese exile Teng Biao, who had campaigned for political change in China as a civil rights activist until Xi Jinping’s rise to the top of the party. Especially the younger generation is starting to lose hope, says Teng.
Videos on TikTok provide instructions in Mandarin on how refugees can make the harrowing journey from South America to the US border and how best to behave there before being arrested in the USA. Many illegal immigrants first arrive in Ecuador, where they do not require a visa. From there, smugglers help them make the thousands of kilometers overland journey through South and Central America. Although the phenomenon is not new, the recent drastic increase in numbers is striking.
Since the 1990s, the Chinese have been one of the largest groups applying for political asylum in the United States. Between 2009 and 2011, one in three asylum seekers was a Chinese citizen.
During the Covid restrictions, however, the number of refugees dropped significantly. Between January 2020 and December 2021, an average of only 54 Chinese nationals were apprehended at the southern border each month. The number only rose again to more than 200 in May 2022. Since December 2022, when China lifted its Covid measures, an average of 2,145 people have been apprehended monthly.
However, declaring economic reasons in the asylum procedure alone is hardly enough. Ma Ju tells his guests in Queens the same thing. He also explains to them that the USA is no paradise and survival can sometimes be tough. “Some refugees are disillusioned when they realize that the cost of living in the USA is very high and it is not easy to find well-paid jobs straight away.”
Those who genuinely fear for their freedom and health in China face this challenge with full courage. Others, however, who hope for quick wealth are disillusioned, Ma explains. He remembers a refugee who decided to return to China after two months in the country. Ma does not know how the Chinese authorities received him there. He lost all contact with the man.
Deportations, on the other hand, are rarely successful because China often refuses to allow refugees to return. This leaves them stranded in the United States, without a social security number and not officially allowed to work. If they are civil servants and party cadres, however, the Chinese authorities are interested in their return.
As part of Operation Foxhunt, which was launched by the Chinese government in 2014, Chinese agents and security forces worldwide persuaded hundreds of Chinese officials to supposedly “voluntarily” return to the People’s Republic after fleeing their homeland. Those who were brought back were tried and sentenced.
The Star50 Index was actually supposed to symbolize a new China. A rising country with an economy driven by innovation and technological breakthroughs. Five years ago, China’s head of state and party leader Xi Jinping personally announced the new tech index modeled after the US Nasdaq.
The index aims to “promote the high-quality development of China’s economy” and “promote the market-oriented reform of the capital market,” the Shanghai Stock Exchange advertises the young tech index on its website. However, investors who trusted these lofty words were sorely disappointed.
This is because the Star50 is currently trading near a new record low, which it reached at the end of October. It has been tradable as an index fund since August 2020. Investors who have participated since then have lost almost half of their original investment. This makes the Star50 the sad low point among Chinese share indices, which have been performing poorly overall for years.
The losses also upset small investors. The Halloween costume of a man dressed up as a falling share chart recently caused a stir on social networks. Beijing is attempting to stabilize share prices with support measures. Since August, the government has been buying more Chinese shares in order to breathe new life into the weakening market, according the US bank Goldman Sachs.
However, the government took a similar course of action eight years ago. Following the late former Premier Li Keqiang’s encouragement to the people to invest more in the stock market, a veritable euphoria broke out. The main index doubled within a year. But the inevitable happened: The bubble burst and investors lost a lot of money.
In order to stabilize the situation, the government had state funds and banks buy so many shares that state institutions more than tripled their shareholdings within a few months. Betting on falling share prices was also temporarily banned. However, the downward spiral continued for quite some time.
And analysts believe this is what it looks like again now. Above all, international funds are still unconvinced that the Chinese market will recover soon. As soon as there is a slight recovery, they will continue to sell, warns US investment bank Morgan Stanley.
Shortly before Xi Jinping’s meeting with US President Joe Biden, Beijing made a number of demands. On Monday, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said the US should respect China’s legitimate concerns and issues. This also includes the right of the People’s Republic to develop. Instead, the USA is being accused of focusing on harming China’s interests.
China hopes that America does not want a new Cold War or seek conflict with the People’s Republic, but wants to put relations back on a “stable path of development,” according to the Foreign Office spokeswoman in Beijing.
Xi and Biden will meet tomorrow, Wednesday, on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Community (APEC) summit in San Francisco. However, experts do not expect any agreement on sensitive issues such as the war in Ukraine, the Taiwan issue or US tech sanctions. After all, the positions of China and the USA could hardly be more opposed. rad
The guests at the Plough were quite surprised by the two well-dressed men at the counter: The then-Prime Minister David Cameron and Chinese President Xi Jinping were standing in the local pub in Cadsden, England, that evening in October 2015 – each with a tasty pint in front of them – supposedly having a relaxed conversation about the big issues of the time.
That was eight years ago, and yet these images and their significance immediately returned to the consciousness of the British political establishment on Monday. Because Cameron is back on the political stage. According to reports from London, he will be the new foreign minister in the cabinet of Prime Minister Rishi Sunak. It is the comeback of a friend of China.
Born in London in 1966, David William Donald Cameron was British Prime Minister from 2010 to July 2016. He is best known to the European public outside the British Isles for the Brexit referendum he initiated. Cameron favored staying in the European Union, but the voters chose to leave, so Cameron resigned. Cameron’s close ties to China are far less well known – but certainly important for his new role as British foreign secretary.
Because as Prime Minister at the time, Cameron was not just enjoying a pint with Xi Jinping. In fact, he was striving for a “golden era” in relations between the UK and China. Cameron firmly believed that China would invest in British infrastructure, Chinese companies would employ British people, creating many new jobs. London became a founding member of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) designed by China – against the wishes of the United States. British diplomats also pushed for a formal EU trade and investment agreement with China.
Even then, this went too far for some. Critics accused Cameron of deliberately overlooking the problems in the South China Sea, the cyberattacks from China and the deliberate devaluation of the renminbi. Their conclusion: Cameron is “stubbornly chillaxed” about China.
In contrast, there was praise from the highest level in Beijing. In a rare interview, Xi Jinping praised the UK’s “visionary and strategic” decision to position itself as Beijing’s best friend in the West. After his time as prime minister, Cameron retired from big politics and devoted himself primarily to Alzheimer’s research. However, his ties to China did not break off.
Less than a year after leaving No. 10 Downing Street, Mr Cameron became vice president of a Sino-British investment fund. The main aim of the billion-pound fund is to support Xi Jinping’s prestigious global project: China’s New Silk Road. A spicy fact: As the British BBC reports, the British government apparently directly supports the fund.
Cameron’s new post also brought the British Parliament’s Intelligence and Security Committee onto the scene. Cameron’s appointment as vice president was “in part engineered by the Chinese state” to give the fund credibility. Through Cameron, Beijing wants to generate trust in Chinese investments and the Chinese brand as a whole, the British newspaper Guardian quoted from confidential documents.
The parliamentary committee labeled Cameron’s move a “complete misreading of the Chinese government’s determination to invest in the UK to gain global technological dominance for the Chinese Communist party.”
More and more leaders in the UK seem to share this opinion. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak called the approach of a “golden era between Great Britain and China” naive. Instead, the UK must replace this wishful thinking with “robust pragmatism” when dealing with competitors.
Nevertheless, some fear that Cameron’s appointment could mean a return to the old days. Executive Director of the Sino-skeptic Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China, Luke de Pulford, told the UK’s Spector that it was “an incomprehensible, retrograde appointment” and described Lord Cameron as “out of step with Parliament and the country on China.”
From a pure protocol standpoint, the British Foreign Secretary post is too low for a direct meeting with China’s President. But if Cameron and Xi really do get on so well, the two could meet for another pint in the Plough. But Xi should probably be the one to make the reservation. Because the pub has recently gone to Chinese investors. Michael Radunski
Protest in Hong Kong: Since the Chinese central government introduced the Security Law in the former British colony, activists in the city are no longer allowed to protest the government. However, actions like this one on Monday are still allowed: The animal rights organization PETA drew attention to the use of down in the textile production of the fashion chain H&M. Three activists slipped into goose costumes – and were even masked as a result.
The number of illegal Chinese immigrants in the United States is rising dramatically. The reasons for their escape from China vary. But almost all of them have the same problems when they arrive: How do they continue their journey far from home?
Marcel Grzanna managed to speak to Ma Ju. Ma applied for political asylum in the USA in 2019 – so far without result. He looks after his arriving compatriots in a New Yorker apartment block. He talks about ideologically adjusting to a democratic system, but also about the practical everyday problems and the emotional condition of the new arrivals. Ma’s commitment can hardly be overestimated. After all, a return to China would be dangerous for his compatriots.
Financially dangerous is what investors are currently experiencing with the Star50. The new tech index from Shanghai was supposed to symbolize a new China: driven by innovation and technological breakthroughs. President Xi Jinping personally announced it, but the Shanghai tech index has only gone downhill since its launch.
Joern Petring shows how the Chinese government is trying to stop the stock freefall – and notes that similar measures have already been used in the past. However, state purchases and short-selling restrictions will not provide a quick remedy.
Word about the kindness of wealthy Ma Ju has spread. Ma, a Chinese citizen of the Muslim Hui ethnic group, lives in the United States and has been accommodating Chinese refugees in a rented building in the New York borough of Queens since December last year.
Ma has taken in more than 200 people in the past eleven months: Uyghurs, Hui or Dong, but also numerous members of the dominant Han ethnic group, all of whom have fled their homeland. Sometimes for political reasons, sometimes for economic reasons. At present, 17 people live in the New York shelter, a few more than usual.
All of the residents have entered the United States illegally via the Central American route over the past few months to apply for political asylum. After crossing the border, they were arrested and detained for several days, sometimes several weeks. After their release, the long wait begins. The approval process can take years. Many go to California or New York – hoping to find fellow compatriots and thus a better integration in the more liberal states of the USA.
In Queens, the refugees find time to plan the start of a new life. For those who need a place to stay, Ma provides a bed and adequate food free of charge for two weeks. Those wishing to stay longer must pay a share of the costs. But after two months, they must make room for a new refugee.
Ma offers advice, arranges jobs or contacts with lawyers who support the asylum process. “I inform people about the rights they enjoy in the USA, but also about where their rights end,” Ma told Table.Media in a video call. Many only slowly understand what it means to live in a democratic nation. “Some need a while before they dare to invoke their rights. They are not used to that from China,” says Ma.
Ma himself also applied for political asylum in the USA in 2019 – so far without result. He arrived from Dubai by plane with a visa in his passport and plenty of money. He made his fortune as an entrepreneur in the mining industry. Returning to China is out of the question for him because, as an influential Muslim businessman, he was suspected of supporting Uyghur terrorists in 2009.
According to the non-governmental organization Political Asylum USA, the chances of a positive decision are actually not too bad for Chinese citizens. Political repression and a lack of religious freedom are accepted reasons for wanting to flee from China to the US. The legal network Nolo advises applicants to clearly state how their personal “protected ground” was violated or threatened and why the asylum seeker fears returning to China.
In fact, the number of Chinese asylum seekers in the US has risen dramatically recently. The US authorities reported more than 4,000 arrests of Chinese nationals in September – 70 percent more than in August. A total of 24,000 have been apprehended since fall 2022.
Media reports suggest that many refugees have left their homeland for economic and political reasons. Many complain that bureaucracy and security authorities have left them no room to help themselves. The brutal enforcement of the pandemic measures has also increased the number of refugees.
“In recent years, many people have realized how mercilessly the system treats them,” says Chinese exile Teng Biao, who had campaigned for political change in China as a civil rights activist until Xi Jinping’s rise to the top of the party. Especially the younger generation is starting to lose hope, says Teng.
Videos on TikTok provide instructions in Mandarin on how refugees can make the harrowing journey from South America to the US border and how best to behave there before being arrested in the USA. Many illegal immigrants first arrive in Ecuador, where they do not require a visa. From there, smugglers help them make the thousands of kilometers overland journey through South and Central America. Although the phenomenon is not new, the recent drastic increase in numbers is striking.
Since the 1990s, the Chinese have been one of the largest groups applying for political asylum in the United States. Between 2009 and 2011, one in three asylum seekers was a Chinese citizen.
During the Covid restrictions, however, the number of refugees dropped significantly. Between January 2020 and December 2021, an average of only 54 Chinese nationals were apprehended at the southern border each month. The number only rose again to more than 200 in May 2022. Since December 2022, when China lifted its Covid measures, an average of 2,145 people have been apprehended monthly.
However, declaring economic reasons in the asylum procedure alone is hardly enough. Ma Ju tells his guests in Queens the same thing. He also explains to them that the USA is no paradise and survival can sometimes be tough. “Some refugees are disillusioned when they realize that the cost of living in the USA is very high and it is not easy to find well-paid jobs straight away.”
Those who genuinely fear for their freedom and health in China face this challenge with full courage. Others, however, who hope for quick wealth are disillusioned, Ma explains. He remembers a refugee who decided to return to China after two months in the country. Ma does not know how the Chinese authorities received him there. He lost all contact with the man.
Deportations, on the other hand, are rarely successful because China often refuses to allow refugees to return. This leaves them stranded in the United States, without a social security number and not officially allowed to work. If they are civil servants and party cadres, however, the Chinese authorities are interested in their return.
As part of Operation Foxhunt, which was launched by the Chinese government in 2014, Chinese agents and security forces worldwide persuaded hundreds of Chinese officials to supposedly “voluntarily” return to the People’s Republic after fleeing their homeland. Those who were brought back were tried and sentenced.
The Star50 Index was actually supposed to symbolize a new China. A rising country with an economy driven by innovation and technological breakthroughs. Five years ago, China’s head of state and party leader Xi Jinping personally announced the new tech index modeled after the US Nasdaq.
The index aims to “promote the high-quality development of China’s economy” and “promote the market-oriented reform of the capital market,” the Shanghai Stock Exchange advertises the young tech index on its website. However, investors who trusted these lofty words were sorely disappointed.
This is because the Star50 is currently trading near a new record low, which it reached at the end of October. It has been tradable as an index fund since August 2020. Investors who have participated since then have lost almost half of their original investment. This makes the Star50 the sad low point among Chinese share indices, which have been performing poorly overall for years.
The losses also upset small investors. The Halloween costume of a man dressed up as a falling share chart recently caused a stir on social networks. Beijing is attempting to stabilize share prices with support measures. Since August, the government has been buying more Chinese shares in order to breathe new life into the weakening market, according the US bank Goldman Sachs.
However, the government took a similar course of action eight years ago. Following the late former Premier Li Keqiang’s encouragement to the people to invest more in the stock market, a veritable euphoria broke out. The main index doubled within a year. But the inevitable happened: The bubble burst and investors lost a lot of money.
In order to stabilize the situation, the government had state funds and banks buy so many shares that state institutions more than tripled their shareholdings within a few months. Betting on falling share prices was also temporarily banned. However, the downward spiral continued for quite some time.
And analysts believe this is what it looks like again now. Above all, international funds are still unconvinced that the Chinese market will recover soon. As soon as there is a slight recovery, they will continue to sell, warns US investment bank Morgan Stanley.
Shortly before Xi Jinping’s meeting with US President Joe Biden, Beijing made a number of demands. On Monday, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said the US should respect China’s legitimate concerns and issues. This also includes the right of the People’s Republic to develop. Instead, the USA is being accused of focusing on harming China’s interests.
China hopes that America does not want a new Cold War or seek conflict with the People’s Republic, but wants to put relations back on a “stable path of development,” according to the Foreign Office spokeswoman in Beijing.
Xi and Biden will meet tomorrow, Wednesday, on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Community (APEC) summit in San Francisco. However, experts do not expect any agreement on sensitive issues such as the war in Ukraine, the Taiwan issue or US tech sanctions. After all, the positions of China and the USA could hardly be more opposed. rad
The guests at the Plough were quite surprised by the two well-dressed men at the counter: The then-Prime Minister David Cameron and Chinese President Xi Jinping were standing in the local pub in Cadsden, England, that evening in October 2015 – each with a tasty pint in front of them – supposedly having a relaxed conversation about the big issues of the time.
That was eight years ago, and yet these images and their significance immediately returned to the consciousness of the British political establishment on Monday. Because Cameron is back on the political stage. According to reports from London, he will be the new foreign minister in the cabinet of Prime Minister Rishi Sunak. It is the comeback of a friend of China.
Born in London in 1966, David William Donald Cameron was British Prime Minister from 2010 to July 2016. He is best known to the European public outside the British Isles for the Brexit referendum he initiated. Cameron favored staying in the European Union, but the voters chose to leave, so Cameron resigned. Cameron’s close ties to China are far less well known – but certainly important for his new role as British foreign secretary.
Because as Prime Minister at the time, Cameron was not just enjoying a pint with Xi Jinping. In fact, he was striving for a “golden era” in relations between the UK and China. Cameron firmly believed that China would invest in British infrastructure, Chinese companies would employ British people, creating many new jobs. London became a founding member of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) designed by China – against the wishes of the United States. British diplomats also pushed for a formal EU trade and investment agreement with China.
Even then, this went too far for some. Critics accused Cameron of deliberately overlooking the problems in the South China Sea, the cyberattacks from China and the deliberate devaluation of the renminbi. Their conclusion: Cameron is “stubbornly chillaxed” about China.
In contrast, there was praise from the highest level in Beijing. In a rare interview, Xi Jinping praised the UK’s “visionary and strategic” decision to position itself as Beijing’s best friend in the West. After his time as prime minister, Cameron retired from big politics and devoted himself primarily to Alzheimer’s research. However, his ties to China did not break off.
Less than a year after leaving No. 10 Downing Street, Mr Cameron became vice president of a Sino-British investment fund. The main aim of the billion-pound fund is to support Xi Jinping’s prestigious global project: China’s New Silk Road. A spicy fact: As the British BBC reports, the British government apparently directly supports the fund.
Cameron’s new post also brought the British Parliament’s Intelligence and Security Committee onto the scene. Cameron’s appointment as vice president was “in part engineered by the Chinese state” to give the fund credibility. Through Cameron, Beijing wants to generate trust in Chinese investments and the Chinese brand as a whole, the British newspaper Guardian quoted from confidential documents.
The parliamentary committee labeled Cameron’s move a “complete misreading of the Chinese government’s determination to invest in the UK to gain global technological dominance for the Chinese Communist party.”
More and more leaders in the UK seem to share this opinion. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak called the approach of a “golden era between Great Britain and China” naive. Instead, the UK must replace this wishful thinking with “robust pragmatism” when dealing with competitors.
Nevertheless, some fear that Cameron’s appointment could mean a return to the old days. Executive Director of the Sino-skeptic Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China, Luke de Pulford, told the UK’s Spector that it was “an incomprehensible, retrograde appointment” and described Lord Cameron as “out of step with Parliament and the country on China.”
From a pure protocol standpoint, the British Foreign Secretary post is too low for a direct meeting with China’s President. But if Cameron and Xi really do get on so well, the two could meet for another pint in the Plough. But Xi should probably be the one to make the reservation. Because the pub has recently gone to Chinese investors. Michael Radunski
Protest in Hong Kong: Since the Chinese central government introduced the Security Law in the former British colony, activists in the city are no longer allowed to protest the government. However, actions like this one on Monday are still allowed: The animal rights organization PETA drew attention to the use of down in the textile production of the fashion chain H&M. Three activists slipped into goose costumes – and were even masked as a result.
