Last year, Chinese businessman Li Xiaosan and his teenage son traveled 5,000 kilometers (3,107 miles) through Central America to reach the United States.
In Colombia, they were robbed at gunpoint and lost almost all their valuables. In Panama, they walked through treacherous forests and swamps, and in Mexico they made a dangerous 12-hour sea journey.
On Chinese New Year, they video chatted with family in China, and Li’s son started crying. Li told him, “Freedom is not free.”
Li and his son were among more than 37,000 Chinese citizens who were arrested for illegally crossing the US southern border in 2023, and Chinese citizens are now the largest group outside the Americas to attempt the dangerous journey. Many, like Li, are middle class.
“Everything about the country’s politics and economy was obscure,” Li told Al Jazeera. “What is the meaning of living there without any hope?”
Li’s life in China once felt like a “Chinese dream” come true. The 44-year-old grew up in a poor village in China’s central Henan province, obtained a university education and founded a leather goods trading company. He once owned several apartments and sent his two children to international schools in Thailand.
But when the COVID-19 pandemic hit, Li’s comfortable life was turned upside down. Orders from international customers dried up and his business collapsed. Li returned to his hometown of Henan, but quickly realized that due to China’s strict lockdown policies, he could not even leave his residential complex to buy the medicines he needed.
Being outspoken also got Li in trouble. For more than a decade, he criticized the government online and was twice questioned by local authorities. The last interrogation in 2022 lasted hours. For Li, it was the last straw.
“My life in China was definitely better than in America. I have nothing in America. But I want to enjoy freedom of speech,” Li said. “I want to say whatever I want and don’t have to worry about the police knocking on my door.”
Li and his son arrived in the US state of Texas last February. They were detained by US border authorities for five days, before being released and heading to their final destination – New York, where they currently live.
‘Vote with your feet’
Like Li, many middle-class Chinese who travel to the US are college educated, have an established career or business in China, and know how to use a VPN to avoid official censorship and access free internet.
Mainly in their 30s and 40s, they grew up at a time when China had impressive economic growth and became more connected to the rest of the world. But now they feel increasingly suffocated by the country’s weak economy and the government’s tightening political grip. Many find the US attractive because they see it as an economic power where there is also political freedom.
“I have known for a long time that our system has huge problems, but the economy used to be good and covered up a lot of problems,” said Vincent Wang, 40, who is now in Mexico waiting for his asylum appointment to enter the country. . USA, said of China.
Wang ran a guesthouse in Dali, an idyllic mountain town in southwestern China that was popular with young domestic tourists. Before the pandemic, his guesthouse was often full, generating an average monthly profit of $4,000. But business plummeted, and even after Beijing finally ended its strict zero-COVID policy, the boom was short-lived, according to Wang.
“People just don’t have a lot of disposable income anymore. They are not spending more,” he told Al Jazeera.
Since China lifted its zero-COVID policy, its long-awaited economic comeback has failed to gain momentum. In 2023, China’s economy grew 5.2 percent, meeting the official target, but concerns about slow growth remained amid structural problems including a housing market crisis and record debt. At the same time, China’s tightening control over all aspects of life, from restrictions on online speech to censorship of social media, has fueled discontent among some citizens.
Wang says the situation he found himself in led to a “political depression” and that he could no longer see a future for himself in China. “I lived half my life. In the second half I want to be freer,” he said.
Last year, Wang began collecting information about the Central American route on Telegram, a messaging app where many Chinese migrants share their experiences of the journey.
Earlier this year, he flew to Ecuador and headed to the USA.
Ecuador, which until recently offered visa-free travel to Chinese citizens, has been a gateway to the US for Chinese migrants. In 2023, Ecuador documented around 24,000 Chinese citizens entering the country, a twofold increase compared to the previous five-year average. Almost 80% of Chinese people were highly or medium-skilled professionals. Young middle-class Chinese are the demographic most likely to have the financial means and physical strength to complete the migration route to the US through Ecuador, according to a recent study. report by the Niskanen Center, a think tank based in Washington, DC.
On July 1, Ecuador suspended visa-free entry into the country for Chinese citizens due to a rise in irregular migration, but chatter on social media suggests there is little it can do to stop Chinese people from migrating to the US via Central America. Messages between Chinese migrants on Telegram indicate that some plan to start their journey further south in Bolivia, where Chinese passport holders can obtain a visa on arrival. Other Chinese migrants have used more discreet and convenient routes, such as flying to Mexico with a valid multiple-entry Japanese visa, which unlocks visa-free status in Mexico.
For middle-class Chinese like Wang and Li, their options for migrating to the US are limited. While wealthier Chinese opt for investor visas, less wealthy Chinese struggle to obtain a US visa. The refusal rate for Chinese citizens applying for tourist and business visas in the US was 27% last year, higher than before the pandemic. And due to a huge backlog of applications, the wait time for US visa appointments in China is now more than two months. Both Li and Wang cited difficulties in obtaining a tourist visa for the US as one of the reasons they embarked on the treacherous journey across the Americas.
Personal sacrifices
For middle-aged and middle-class migrants, the decision to leave China comes with great personal sacrifice. For safety reasons, Li left his wife and youngest son behind. He also had to say goodbye to his father, who was suffering from terminal cancer. “My father was already very weak. I knew that if I left China I would never see him again,” Li said in a trembling voice. His father died a few months after Li arrived in the US.
Undocumented Chinese migrants also often face difficulties supporting themselves once they arrive in the United States. Last June, the Chinese consulate in Los Angeles issued a warning that many undocumented Chinese migrants who had recently arrived in the US chose to return to China as they did not have legal status or sufficient income. “China firmly opposes and cracks down on all forms of illegal migration,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Mao Ning said in April.
Once he arrived in New York City, Li took on a series of odd jobs – from construction worker to busboy at a Chinese restaurant to running a street stand selling accessories made in China. “It was very difficult,” he recalled.
After saving some funds, Li founded a translation company earlier this year with his business partner, another Chinese migrant he met in the jungles of Panama. Now, Li’s only wish is to reunite with his wife and youngest son, who could come to the US if he is granted political asylum.
Wang, the former inn owner, is awaiting his digital appointment through CBP One, an app launched by U.S. Customs and Border Protection to process asylum appointments.
As he bides his time in Mexico City, he says he is willing to live a frugal life and work demanding jobs if he is granted asylum.
“To be honest, I know the US is not a paradise, but I know where hell is,” he said. “I had to get out of there.”
This story originally appeared on Aljazeera.com read the full story
