Opinion | Trump: Chinese migrants are 'here to build an army' – What do authorities think?

By Augustus K. Yeung

President Joe Biden is planning to impose major new tariffs on EVs, and other Chinese green energy imports, former president – Donald Trump is suggesting that Chinese migrants are "here to build an army." Both approaches would hurt the Chinese. But they might also bring disasters to America as well.

U.S. newspapers have asserted that the migrants are telling another story.

While Biden is being serious and security conscious, Trump is single-mindedly sarcastic. Perhaps he is desperate and wants to garner more support from U.S. voters.

For the readers' entertainment and knowledge, here is the text, showing Trump's adamant sense of jealousy in fabricating stories about China, a nation that keeps creating billionaires.

The story of Wang Gang, and others who have illegally migrated to the Flushing neighborhood of the Queens borough of New York.

"It was 7 a.m. on a recent Friday when Wang Gang, a 36-year-old Chinese [illegal] immigrant, jostled for a day job in New York City's Flushing neighborhood, writes Didi Tang from New York for a Macau-based English-language newspaper.

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 movers – anything that would pay.

Today, 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 U.S. border illegally in February some five months ago.

The daily struggle of illegal Chinese immigrants in Flushing is a far cry from the picture former President Donald Trump and other Republicans have sought to paint them as a coordinated group of "military-age" men who have come to the United State – to build an "army" and attack America.

Since the start of the year, as the Chinese newcomers adjust to life in the U.S., Trump has alluded to "fighting age" or "military age" Chinese men – at least six time and suggested at least twice – that they were forming a migrant "army."

The talking point also appears in conservative media and on social platforms.

"They're coming in from China – 31, 32,000 over the last few months – and they mostly are men." Trump said during a campaign rally last month. "And it sounds like to me, are they trying to build a little army in our country?"

Asian advocacy organizations 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 – when Trump first cast the "Wuhan Virus" slurs on the Chinese.

Wang, who traveled several weeks from Wuhan, China, to Ecuador, to the southern U.S. border, said the idea that Chinese migrants were building a military simply "does not exist" among immigrants he has met.

"We came here to make money," he said.

Immigrants in Flushing said they came to escape poverty and financial losses from their country's strict lockdown during the pandemic…

Note: Since late 2022 – when China's three-year COVID-19 lockdown began to lift – the U.S. has seen a sharp rise in the number of Chinese migrants.

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 U.S. border.

One reason men may come alone in higher numbers is the danger, said Yin, a 35-year-old Chinese man who only gave his family name because he was concerned about the safety of his wife and children in China.

"This trip is deadly. People die. The trip isn't suitable for women – it's not suitable for women – it's not suitable for anyone," said Yin.

Immigrants in Flushing said they came to America for a new life, not to fight…There has been no evidence whatsoever that migrants from China are coming to the U.S. to fight Americans.

Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Cambell last month called the Chinese nationals "economic migrants."

China has said it strongly opposed illegal immigration. Its foreign ministry said Trump's claims of a Chinese migrant army were "an egregious mismatch of the facts."

Sapna Chernyan, a psychology professor at the University of Washington, said the claims about Chinese migrants – made without evidence – build on pervasive stereotypes that Asian people do not belong in the country.

These weird ideas have fueled violence against Asian-Americans – and could embolden people again, she said. (Source: MDT/AP)

Chinese immigrants to the United States, legally or illegally, have had a long history. In centuries past, rural China had no better jobs to offer other than working on the farms. And so, there were many migrants from Guangdong, now known as the Greater Bay Area (GBA).

Historically, few Chinese were making it to America from as far inland or as central as Wuhan like the few illegal immigrants in Flushing mentioned in this article. This is a new migration pattern, motivated by desperate unemployed Chinese workers whose lives were horribly ruined by COVID-19, the pandemic disease that wrecked havocs all over the world.

Trump's version of the story makes sense to some Americans – because it has drawing power, as it attributes the cause of social discontent to the PLA, which the American politicians have habitually taught the American public to hate.

According to a recent Pew study, 40 percent of the American public hate China. Ironically, the peoples in the United States and China are facing the same economical and human issues.

Truth is neither President Joe Biden's raising tariffs by 100% nor Trump's witch-hunting would help to solve these livelihood issues the American working-class have fallen prey on. The former would lead to inflation, making import-goods from China unimaginably unaffordable, and Trump's sarcastic scenario would – as the authorities have predicted – inspire hate crimes in American society – resulting in sad, innocent Asian Americans being victimized.

 

The views do not necessarily reflect those of DotDotNews.

To contact the writer, please direct email: AugustusKYeung@ymail.com

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