Chinese Border Crossers Enter US With Help From TikTok | China In Focus

welcome to China and focus I'm Tiffany Meyer our top story a surge in illegal Chinese immigrants Crossing into the US Southern border as concerns rise is Tick Tock lending a hand treasury secretary jenet Yellen pressuring the World Bank not to lend money to Beijing how has the institution fueled China's position on the world stage this year's Nobel Peace Prize nominations are out a UK lawmaker suggesting an American nonprofit working to expose China's forced organ harvesting and crimes against humanity The Epic Times spoke to him about his selection and just 3 days before the Lunar New Year Chinese people are struggling to stay of covid variants one doctor saying his Province saw over 5,000 infections in a single [Music] day the southern border seeing an over 1,000% spike in illegal Chinese Crossings how does Tik Tok tie into the sech one of the fastest growing groups Crossing into the border now are illegal Chinese immigrants and some of them have found a border Gap with help from videos shared on the Chinese version of Tik Tok that's according to a report from CBS numbers of illegal Chinese crossers are hitting a record High over 24,000 of them entered the country illegally last year that's a 1,000% Spike compared to the year before and over 18,000 already came in through the Border this year as of February some are fleeing China's plunging economy or human rights abuses back home but us lawmakers have another concern in Mind Over 90% of illegal Chinese immigrants in 2023 are single adults officials are argue they could engage in Espionage activities is the PRC exploiting the crisis at our Southern border for their own personal gain I think we should assume that any vulnerabilities at our Southern border are open for authoritarian influence of many kinds I think that's a that's a safe assumption um if if the gaps are there then those who are working uh against us are going to use them to their advantage the PRC or People's Republic of China is China's formal name many Chinese immigrants looking to ille Al cross the US border first fly to Ecuador because it doesn't require visas from there they go to Tijuana a city in Mexico from there they pay Smugglers a few hundred bucks for a drive to a gap in the Border that's where Tik Tock comes into play the CBS report said videos on the platform have detailed instructions for how to get to the Border hole Tik Tock is owned by a Chinese company called bite dance the app has become massively popular in the in the US but has also sparked controversies over 30 US states have banned Tik Tok from government issued devices due to security and data collection concerns while some fear the app pushes dangerous content toward children reasons for the surge in illegal Chinese Crossings vary for one it's getting harder for them to get tourist visas into the US that's as tensions Mount between the two countries plus Chinese Nationals seem to have a higher chance chance of being granted Asylum over half of Chinese immigrants received Asylum last year that's compared to 14% of those from other countries US immigration courts have asked over 36,000 Chinese to leave but China often won't take back its citizens a tough question for treasury secretary Janet Yellen at a hearing Tuesday a lawmaker questioned Yellen if she would commit to increasing the capital of the World Bank conditional on graduating China from World Bank assistance and not allowing Beijing to increase its voting power let me say we are strongly opposed to World Bank lending to China we've pushed the World Bank and other mdbs to reduce and eliminate their lending volume to China the term MDB refers to multilateral development Banks they provide financial support to developing countries the World Bank lends money to China because it's considered a developing country even though it's the world's second largest economy the organization has approved over9 billion dollar for projects in China since 2016 Beijing is worried about us tariffs and sanctions on Chinese companies that's what its Financial officials told visiting US Treasury officials on Tuesday the worries followed former president Trump's tariff proposal on Sunday to impose a 60% tax on on Chinese Goods if elected the US delegation is in Beijing for a series of trade talks it's led by Jay shamba Treasury under secretary for international Affairs on the discussion list beijing's non-market trade tactics in industrial overcapacity Washington sees many of them as unfair practices designed to block or coers foreign companies operating there zooming out the meeting comes amid a sluggish Chinese economy grappled with Market drops real EST State woes and mounting local debt the talks is also expected to pave the way for treasury secretary Janet yelen second China visit later this year a medical ethics advocacy group suggested for the Nobel Peace Prize UK lawmaker Philip hunt nominated doctors against forced organ harvesting for its efforts in exposing the ongoing horrors of forced Oregan harvesting in communist China he told The Epic Times that he wants to raise more awareness about beijing's State sanction crimes through the nomination Philip hunt also praised the group for its tremendous job in making the case for why we need to take action and at the same time upholding the medical ethics and human dignity founded in 2007 the group comprises medical doctors worldwide it's been investigating and Reporting on the problem for nearly two decades it also received the nomination for 2016 Nobel Peace Prize the group emphasized is that forced organ harvesting in China is distinct from the Western understanding of free and voluntary organ donations based on its investigation it found there are many living organ donors reservoirs in the country in prison followers of Faith group Fallen gong have become the main source for those underground facilities Fallen gong is a spiritual practice based on the principles of truthfulness compassion and forbearance fingon practitioners have been persec uted by the Chinese Communist Party since 1999 reports show China became the top destination for organ tourism in the early 2000s foreigners traveled to China for organs drawn in by the extremely short weight times China has been matching patients with organs at speeds unimaginable in the West in 2022 securing a heart for a patient in Wuhan China took 4 days in 2020 doctors presented a Chinese woman with four Hearts to choose from in just 10 days more contenders for the prize a group of bipartisan lawmakers nominated six Hong kongers for the Nobel Peace Prize that's for their efforts to defend the city's Democratic freedom from beijing's attempts to undermine it the lawmakers include Congressman Chris Smith and Senator Jeff Merkley they are the chair and co-chair of the Congressional executive Commission on China on the list of nominees first off Jim Jimmy lie founder of pro-democracy newspaper Apple Daily lie is a prominent critic of Beijing Hong Kong police raided the newspapers headquarters and it was later forced to shut down next Cardinal Joseph Zen he was convicted last year for failing to register a fund to help pro-democracy protesters then there's Joshua Wong he's a prominent activist and testified on Capitol Hill over Hong Kong's pro-democracy protests in 2019 he was sentenced to 3 months behind bars for revealing information about a police officer who injured a pro-democracy protester from civilian informants to facial recognition a vast high-tech surveillance Network embedded into every corner of China but how does the system work and can Beijing export its surveillance model overseas let's look at it in three different spheres labor society and economic according to an analysis published by the Foreign Affairs magazine China's surveillance system relies heavily on Manpower since the Chinese Communist party took power in 1949 the regime has built a network of millions of informants many of them work for free while hiding among civilians as they are either enticed or cered into serving the regime but running a system on that scale requires a massive Network making it near impossible to export to other countries another factor is that unlike China other states don't have as deep of a foothold into and control over their societies but with China now battling a dwindling economy the article adds that Beijing could have a harder time handling the cost of Maintenance in 2022 China spent over $200 billion on domestic security alone that figure almost matches its total defense spending outside of budgetary concern concerns the faltering economy is compounding another blow to the surveillance system social discontent future recruitments could be more difficult as problems like Rising unemployment spark anger among residents who may be less eager to work for the regime if the surveillance State fails the article adds that the CCP will become more likely to use hard repression tactics against its people in the future money laundering human trafficking and for forced labor alls side products fueled by hundreds of illegal marijuana Farms tied to Chinese crime rings on us soil the pressing question is what's the true scale of these operations and is Beijing playing a role to discuss we sat down with Victor Aila former ice special agent and author of agent Under Fire a bipartisan group of lawmakers are seeking answers from the justice department over illegal Chinese marijuana farms in the states how concerning is this this this is very concerning I'm glad that it's making its way up there because uh this illegal marijuana growing operation in California is more than just the drug itself it is another indicator of the power of the cartels and their presence in our country uh through the help of China local law enforcement officials appeared to been having trouble busting these illegal sites one police chief in Maine was saying that officer don't know where civil enforcement ends and criminal enforcement begins is that how the terrorist label would fit in that that would actually turn it into a criminal enforcement that's a great question because I understand that struggle especially at the state and local level um where you're trying to identify who the bad guy is and that's one of the you would think it's the easiest way but because of the infiltration of this money they it is infiltrated in everyday businesses that you and I might attend and and so all of a sudden they'll turn these illicit funds into legitimate funds through whatever business you can imagine they have done it and also when it comes to the Chinese uh criminal groups they're very very secretive and it's very difficult to sometimes get the information out of them even after they've been under arrest and so they're not only just sending uh Chinese Nationals illegally through here through the Border they've flown uh balloons spy balloons uh uh they're working with the cartels with the fentanyl now these marijuana growing operations they're buying land throughout the entire country especially in Texas where I am hundreds of thousands of Acres uh through shell companies and so this is a a very very uh important concern that I think our uh US federal agencies and government should really pay close attention to because what's going to what's the end game here that China wants to do this is what we need to find out how can America defend itself given all that we're seeing here well that's an easy answer because really a lot of it comes down to border security when it comes to China as we know uh I think they're trying to use every Avenue possible to um infiltrate us for uh nefarious reasons um I think it's a national security threat that's the biggest we know that China is not our not our friend and our adversary uh when I was in Mexico I did a big Chinese smuggling case from China Mexico to New York uh and this was years ago and so they've been trying to do this for a long time in thisa in that case it was for forced labor activity so China is coming at us from every different direction Victor AA thank you so much for your time thank you for having me next China CDC recently admitted that infections caused by covid variant jn1 are on the rise the agency estimated that the country will see more cases over the Lunar New Year holiday season people from across China told NTD that the situation on the ground is far worse than St run media reports suggest let's take a closer look in China various viruses have been surging in regions across the country Chinese cdc's just released new data Tuesday it claims the entire country saw just 134 covid-19 cases in all of January the figure comes as a stark contrast to local reports last weekend a doctor in jangu wrote on social media that the region saw over 5,000 infected patients in just one day this winter virus infections have become more rampant with many children unfortunately falling ill pediatric hospitals are overcrowded parents are extremely worried what's more concerning others told NTD that they witnessed many cases of sudden death in their areas in many cases due to seemingly unknown causes one of our colleagues children reportedly died of sudden Cardiac Arrest another person in his 40s who died suddenly without any apparent illness he was just a bit chubby now there are also cases of people who are usually in good health suddenly finding themselves unable to move their entire body except for their eyes despite State media reports saying otherwise locals maintain the death toll continues to climb the death rate has noticed increased among my relatives two young guys died shortly after getting diagnosed with acute leukemia my aunt who lives here lost two relatives in these few days my wife told me another relative of hers died from a stroke I'm a bus driver two of my colleagues just had heart attacks and passed away both were in their 40s or 50s China's CDC admitted 3 days ago that covid-19 variant J n.1 is still the dominating strain in China adding that covid infections mixed with other infectious diseases are expected to rise during the Lunar New Year holiday starting February 10th that's all for today's China InFocus on YouTube we're now sharing a shorten version of our program here after being demonetized for 3 years if you'd like to support us consider donating find us at donorbox.org ch- in-focus or subscribe to our partner platform epic TV where you can watch our full episodes here's what to look out for in our second half Bloomberg released its Global ranking for lithium battery suppliers and for the first time Canada beat out China for the number one spot concerns over buying solar panels from Chinese manufacturers back in the spotlight that's following Washington's push for clean energy with plans to install solar panels at over 30 Federal facilities including the Pentagon a security analyst weighs in and in some lighter news communities across Asia are buzzing with excitement as they gear up for the Lunar New Year find out what this year's Chinese zodiac animal has in store for 2024 more on that after the break here on China and focus thanks for watching China in Focus I'm Tiffany Meyer see you [Music] tomorrow [Music]