Like other marginalized groups in the U.S., Chinese migrants and students are anxiously preparing for the policy changes under a second presidential term of Donald Trump. The president-elect has promised to implement mass deportation that would target millions of people, and top figures in his orbit have backed plans, targeting China, to purge “un-American” elements from the body politic. Many in the Chinese diaspora, facing pressure from both the American and Chinese governments, question whether they can be safe at home in the U.S.
Among the Chinese migrants that are particularly vulnerable are Hui Muslims, some of whom have fled repressive Sinicization policies in China and survived perilous journeys through Latin America en route to the U.S. As Li Yuan reported for The New York Times on Tuesday, while some Chinese Hui migrants found temporary refuge in a community shelter in New York, their fears continue in the wake of Trump’s election:
“At that time [when his relatives were sent to re-education camps in China], my wife and I were living in constant fear,” [said Yong, a Hui Muslim from Xinjiang], “feeling like even the slightest misstep could get us into serious trouble.” He and his wife arrived in America in May 2023, having transited the Darién Gap. He now drives an ambulance in Queens, and his wife works at a halal restaurant in New York City.
[…] After Mr. Trump won the election, [the founder of the shelter] Mr. Ma said, his phone rang almost nonstop for a week. The callers were anxious. They spoke little English, so they had limited access to official information.
Mr. Ma said he had invited a lawyer to the shelter to explain the importance of applying for political asylum. Most Chinese migrants entering the United States from the southern border are released on parole by immigration authorities. Then they can apply for asylum. Under the current protocols, the lawyer told them, once they had a pending case, they should be protected from deportation.
“It would be lying if anyone says they are not scared,” said Yan, the single mother. “Everyone is on edge.” She said she would accept being deported but would make the painful decision to have someone adopt her son, who has problems learning, if it meant he could stay in the United States.
“My son has to stay here,” she said. “Going back would mean no chance of survival for him.” [Source]
In the U.S., the Chinese diaspora also faces the threat of transnational repression and other influence efforts from the P.R.C. The American government has attempted to confront these issues but has struggled to find a balanced approach, and as The Economist argued last week, its frequent overreach generates distrust among the diaspora:
America’s counterintelligence efforts are meant to make the Chinese diaspora feel safe, says a former official who worked on the China Initiative. “You’re signalling to them: we’ve got your back,” he says. “What you don’t want to do is over-rotate to a situation where being Chinese equals being a spy.” But the initiative left many academics feeling that the government viewed them with suspicion simply because of their Chinese heritage, says Gang Chen of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In 2021 he was charged with failing to disclose connections to Chinese educational programmes when submitting a federal grant application. The indictment was heavily criticised (such disclosures were not actually required). A year later the charges were dropped.
[…] Other members of the Chinese diaspora welcome efforts to stymie Communist Party influence. Zhou Fengsuo of Human Rights in China, an activist group in New York, praises the arrests of people like Ms Sun. But he warns that the heavy-handedness and inconsistency of America’s approach has led to distrust of the government in the diaspora. And he complains that exiled Chinese dissidents receive little protection from the authorities, making them easier targets for Chinese coercion.
[…] In 2022 the Justice Department ended the China Initiative, admitting that it led to a “harmful perception” of racial profiling. But in September the House of Representatives passed a bill to revive it under a new name, the CCP Initiative, with all Republicans voting in favour. Such efforts seem likely to intensify under President-elect Donald Trump, who has given China hawks important jobs. The risk is that in its efforts to counter the Communist Party, America drives more members of the diaspora into its hands. [Source]
Chinese students are another group facing uncertainty under a second Trump administration. Universities in New Jersey, New York, Michigan, and California have sent notices to students regarding their potential inability to return to the U.S. in January once Trump takes office. The South China Morning Post reported, “As of the first week of December, 460,000 posts appeared under the Xiaohongshu topic search string ‘US 1.20 entering the country,’ where the number stands for Trump’s January 20 inauguration.” Liyan Qi at The Wall Street Journal reported last week that both American universities and China’s Consulate General in Chicago warned Chinese students to stay put ahead of the inauguration:
Students should “try to reduce unnecessary cross-border travel,” China’s Consulate General in Chicago said in a Dec. 14 note on its website, referring to holidays approaching.
[…] “I wake up in the middle of the night, worrying about what to do next,” Guo said. “Anxiety is through the roof, and almost everyone I know feels so lost.”
[…] While schools’ warnings have generally been directed at all international students, during internal meetings some school officials referred to students from China as facing increased risk, according to students and faculty members. Students said they had been advised by school officials to comply if immigration officers ask to check their electronic devices and to be careful with what they say on social media.
[…] Iris Feng, a Columbia statistics major, recently canceled a planned trip back to China on the advice of her parents, who urged her to stay put rather than risk running into trouble at the U.S. border on her return. [Source]
Many members of the Chinese diaspora in the U.S. are increasingly “wealthy, educated, and professional” compared to previous generations, as Yi Liu wrote for The Wire China. Their efforts to foster cultural communities anchored in physical spaces in the U.S. are essential to their unique sense of belonging. Rachel Shi, who started her own Chinese stand-up club in New York, said that the club “is not a temporary home. It is not ‘China,’ nor does it represent China. It represents the culture, identity and experiences of each of us.” These diaspora initiatives of self-expression and attempts to connect homelands and identities will be tested under the incoming Trump administration.
