It was 7 a.m. on a recent Friday when Wang Gang, a 36-year-old Chinese immigrant, jostled for a day job in New York City\u2019s Flushing neighbourhood. When a potential employer pulled up near the street corner, Wang and dozens of other men swarmed around the car. They were hoping to be picked for work on a construction site, at a farm, as a mover \u2013 anything that would pay. Wang had no luck, even as he waited for two more hours. It would be another day without a job since he crossed the southern US border illegally in February.<\/p>\n
The daily struggle of Chinese immigrants in Flushing is a far cry from the picture former President Donald Trump and other Republicans have sought to paint of them as a coordinated group of \u201cmilitary-age\u201d men who have come to the United States to build an \u201carmy\u201d and attack America. Since the start of the year, as the Chinese newcomers adjust to life in the US, Trump has alluded to \u201cfighting age\u201d or \u201cmilitary age\u201d Chinese men at least six times and suggested at least twice that they were forming a migrant \u201carmy.\u201d The talking point also appears in conservative media and on social platforms.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re coming in from China \u2013 31, 32,000 over the last few months \u2013 and they\u2019re all military age and they mostly are men,\u201d Trump said during a campaign rally last month. \u201cAnd it sounds like to me, are they trying to build a little army in our country?\u201d Asian advocacy organisations say they worry the rhetoric could encourage further harassment and violence toward the Asian community, which saw more hate incidents during the COVID-19 pandemic. Wang, who travelled several weeks from Wuhan, China, to Ecuador, to the southern US border, said the idea that Chinese migrants were building a military \u201cdoes not exist\u201d among immigrants he has met.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe came here to make money,\u201d he said. Immigrants in Flushing said they came to escape poverty and financial losses from China\u2019s strict lockdown during the pandemic, or to escape the threat of imprisonment in a repressive society where they couldn\u2019t speak or exercise their religion freely. Since late 2022 \u2013 when China\u2019s three-year COVID-19 lockdown began to lift \u2013 the US has seen a sharp rise in the number of Chinese migrants. In 2023, US authorities arrested more than 37,000 Chinese nationals at the US-Mexico border, more than 10 times the previous year\u2019s number.<\/p>\n
In December alone, border officials arrested 5,951 Chinese nationals on the southern border, a record monthly high, before the number trended down during the first three months of this year. Most who have come are single adults, according to federal data. There are more men than women on the perilous route, which typically involves flying to South America and then making the long, arduous trek north to the US border. One reason men may come alone in higher numbers is the danger, said a 35-year-old Chinese man who only gave his family name of Yin because he was concerned about the safety of his wife and children, who remain in China for now.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis trip is deadly. People die. The trip isn\u2019t suitable for women \u2013 it\u2019s not suitable for anyone,\u201d said Yin. Immigrants in Flushing said they came to America to escape China, not to fight on its behalf. Thirty-six-year-old Chen Wang, from southeastern China, said he decided to come to the US in late 2021 after he posted comments critical of the ruling party on Twitter. He was admonished by local police and feared that he could be imprisoned.<\/p>\n
More than two years later, he is still unemployed and lives in a tent in the woods that he has made into a home. Chen described his fellow Chinese on the journey as simply people \u201cchasing a better life.\u201d To be sure, US intelligence leaders have grave concerns about the threat China\u2019s authoritarian government poses to the country. There also have been crimes committed by Chinese immigrants, including the arrest in March of a Chinese national breaching a military base in California, but there has been no evidence that migrants from China are coming to the US to fight Americans.<\/p>\n
Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell last month called the Chinese nationals \u201ceconomic migrants.\u201d China has said it strongly opposes illegal immigration. Its foreign ministry said Trump\u2019s claims of a Chinese migrant army were \u201can egregious mismatch of the facts.\u201d The Department of Homeland Security didn\u2019t respond to requests for comment. Steven Cheung, communications director for the Trump campaign, said letting so many Chinese migrants into the US sets a \u201cdangerous precedent\u201d that nefarious actors could exploit.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese individuals have not been vetted or screened, and we have no idea who they are affiliated with or what their intention is,\u201d he said in an emailed statement. Sapna Cheryan, a psychology professor at the University of Washington, said the claims about Chinese migrants \u2013 made without evidence \u2013 build on pervasive stereotypes that Asian people do not belong in the country. These ideas have fuelled violence against Asian Americans and could embolden people again, she said.<\/p>\n
Li Kai, also known as Khaled, a 44-year-old Muslim from a city close to Beijing, said he was worried about Trump\u2019s statements regarding illegal immigration and Muslims, but said he has no choice other than to stay. He was one of the few who made the trip with his family. He shares a bunk bed and sofa with his wife and two sons in a temporary home in Flushing where he has placed an American flag on the wall. When his sons are at school, he studies for a commercial driver\u2019s license. He hopes to find a job and start paying taxes. \u201cNow that I have brought my family here, I want to have a stable life here,\u201d he said. \u201cI would like to pay back.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
It was 7 a.m. on a recent Friday when Wang Gang, a 36-year-old Chinese immigrant, jostled for a day job\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":28,"featured_media":44299,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[13979,12413,158,13978,4774,168,5334,3530,95],"class_list":["post-44298","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-american-dream","tag-anti-immigrant-rhetoric","tag-china","tag-chinese-immigrants","tag-conspiracy-theories","tag-donald-trump","tag-immigrants","tag-us-2024-presidential-elections","tag-usa"],"reading_time":"5 min read","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44298","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/28"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44298"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44298\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44299"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44298"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44298"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44298"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}