Why Chinese enter the US through the Mexican border – Ian Johnson

Ian Johnson

A large number of the illegal immigrants entering the US from Mexico are Chinese, and not only poor Chinese, says China scholar Ian Johnson in DW. They mostly rely on dubious information on TikTok and have no clue what kind of adventure they get into, he adds.

DW:

The phenomenon of Chinese people entering the United States via the southern border has come to be described by the term “Zouxian,” which can roughly be translated as “take the risk” — and the term’s broad dissemination on social media platforms has led many young Chinese to do just that.

“They rely on social media more in China for getting their information,” said Ian Johnson, a China expert at the US Council on Foreign Relations. “In the Western countries, you would say: ‘What does the mainstream media say about it?’ But, in China, there is no way to fact- check.” Johnson said it concerned him that so many of those young people have no idea what they are getting themselves into.

Johnson said the situation would not just hit the very poor.

“The economic slowdown is affecting broader ranges of the population, including the lower middle class,” Johnson said. He added that increased political persecution under President Xi Jinping has also fueled a desire to leave China behind.

More in DW.

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China: a hub for money laundering - Sara Hsu

Sara Hsu

China is becoming a center point for money laundering activities from Latin America, writes the military magazine Dialogo. Financial expert Sara Hsu explains how those links could work out.

Dialogo:

In August 2018, a special jury in Colorado pressed charges against 16 narcotraffickers who moved cocaine from Mexico to the United States and laundered money through Chinese banks. The process isn’t new: In 2017, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) warned about criminal groups in Mexico, Colombia, and Venezuela that used their contacts with Chinese mafias to launder money through banking entities in the Asian nation. 

Sara Hsu, an associate professor of Economics at the State University of New York and specialist in the Chinese financial system, explains that the Asian nation is an attractive destination to launder money coming from Latin American criminal activities. One of the reasons is the strengthened link between groups such as Mexican drug cartels and Chinese mafias. 

“It’s true that Chinese regulations on money laundering were less rigorous in the past,” Hsu told Diálogo. “But the incentive comes from some Chinese gangs’ willingness to cooperate with Latin American criminals to launder money and participate in other illegal activities. As such, they become important facilitators for Latin American [criminal] organizations.” 

Hsu’s description fit what the DEA indicated in its 2017 National Drug Threat Assessment on the role of Chinese criminal organizations—particularly those operating in the United States—as money laundering facilitators for Latin American criminals. According to the report, Asian transnational criminal organizations (TCOs) “play a key role in the laundering of illicit drug proceeds. Asian TCOs involved in money laundering contract their services and in some cases work jointly with other criminal groups, such as Mexican, Colombian, and Dominican TCOs.” 

According to Hsu, some of the most common money laundering techniques are the purchase of Chinese products and fake commercial exchanges through casinos in Macau and Chinese money exchange houses.

More in Dialogo.

Sara Hsu is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need her at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch or fill in our speakers' request form.

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NAFTA's 2.0 China poison pill will not work - Harry Broadman

Harry Broadman

Former NAFTA negotiator Harry Broadman predicts in Forbes the new trade agreement between the US, Canada and Mexico might not work in the way president Donald Trump wants it to.

Harry Broadman:

The victory proclaimed by the Trump Administration for its renegotiation of a “modernized” North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) is a hollow one. 

 Despite many months of wrangling with our closest neighbors to the North and South of us—our second and third largest trading partners—in fact, few substantive changes have been introduced to the 1994 pact. But that hasn’t stopped the White House from touting the deal. Why?  Because Mr. Trump and his trade team see NAFTA 2.0 as the model to tame nations outside our hemisphere—especially the use of it as the vehicle to proliferate a poison pill lying at the heart of the agreement the U.S. wants to be deployed to corner China and clip its wings from engaging in pernicious trade practices. 

But there are two fundamental barriers to this scenario playing out.  First, Washington will find it tough going to sell this framework to countries with whom there isn’t a pre-existing agreement similar to NAFTA to be amended.  Second, as a practical matter, the U.S.-inserted Chinese poison pill will turn out to be of little therapeutic value, not only for changing Beijing’s conduct but also for inducing other countries to actually exercise this provision. 

Following the announcement on September 30, 2018 concluding the negotiation of the new “United States Mexico Canada Agreement” (USMCA), initially the press focused on the most apparent accomplishment to come out from tension-filled trade talks: the seemingly innocuous re-branding of the original NAFTA. ( whose name I will admit to having fondness for, in part since I was a member of the early 1990s NAFTA negotiation team). 

Perhaps it’s a bit unfair to blame the press for its undue attention to the change in name, which quickly proved to be an awkward choice.  After all, even the President’s top economic advisor, Larry Kudlow, had trouble pronouncing the new moniker the day of the announcement. 

But what didn’t fully sink into the press was the substantive import of the dropping of the words “Free Trade” from the new deal. The change is no accident.

More in Forbes.

Harry Broadman is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch or fill in our speakers' request form.

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Trump focuses trade war on China - Arthur Kroeber

Arthur Kroeber

The new trade agreement between the US, Mexico, and Canada (USMCA)  excluded possible free-trade agreements between the three with China. Trump has its hands free to focus his trade war on China, says economist Arthur Kroeber, author of China's Economy: What Everyone Needs to Know®, at the South China Morning Post. 

The South China Morning Post:

After US-imposed tariffs on an additional US$200 billion worth of Chinese products last month and China’s subsequent rejection of a US invitation to hold talks to ease the dispute, Chinese President Xi Jinping toured his country’s northern rust-belt region, sending a message that China would have to rely on itself for future development. 

Arthur Kroeber, research head and co-founder of the economic consulting firm Gavekal Dragonomics, wrote in a note on Tuesday that the USMCA may put an end to Trump’s trade position of “picking fights with anyone and everyone”. Washington, he said, would focus its fire on the nation it perceives as the real trade enemy: China. 

“The US has confined its economic warfare to a single battlefield, but the fight will be a long one,” Kroeber said.

More at the South China Morning Post.

Arthur Kroeber is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch or fill in our speakers' request form.

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Mexico trade deal puts more pressure on China - Wang Haiyan

Wang Haiyan

US president Trump closed a trade deal with Mexico, a minor victory, but putting more pressure on the trade negotiations with China, says business analyst Wang Haiyan at CGTN. For the time being, Trump can afford to play tough on China, she says.

Wang Haiyan is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need her at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch or fill in our speakers' request form.  

Are you looking for more experts on the trade war between China and the US? Do check out this list.