Mass ICE Raid in Manhattan’s Chinatown — Dozens Arrested in Counterfeit Crackdown

It happened. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement recently launched a large scale raid in Manhattan's Chinatown, arresting numerous illegal vendors and undocumented immigrants suspected of selling counterfeit goods. A reporter visited the scene on Thursday to get the latest updates. Reporter, anyone who's been to Canal Street in Manhattan's Chinatown will have noticed it's a popular destination for counterfeit goods. The stalls that used to be filled with fake bags, watches, and sunglasses are completely gone today, much cleaner than usual. On Tuesday afternoon, IC, along with several federal agencies, raided illegal vendors on Canal Street in Chinatown. Nine undocumented immigrants suspected of selling counterfeit goods were taken to the Delaney Detention Center in New Jersey. Four U.S. citizens were arrested for obstructing law enforcement and clashing with agents, and one was charged with assaulting a police officer. A New Yorker said, I'm used to seeing vendors on Canal Street. It feels like there should be people here, but now there's absolutely no one. Another New Yorker said, Personally, I think it's better to have less congested streets so people can walk more freely. I'm not sure if it's the best approach, but the result, clean streets, looks good. New Yorker Ms. Wang said, It's still quite crowded and a bit dangerous because there are a lot of pickpockets. I was robbed once. They opened my bag very quickly. Two people working together. One pushing while the other pickpocketed. Community leaders have had mixed reactions to the operation. Chinatown Business Improvement District Executive Director Chen Zhuozhou said, For example, licensed vendors say, Well, if you put your stall in front of my door, it gets crowded and people will just look and pass by without coming in, right? Local businesses say, I pay so much rent, so much in property taxes and utilities, and you're not contributing a penny by setting up your stall in front of my door, right? Eugene Shan, leader of the New York Democratic Party's 65th district, said, From two perspectives. First, it's good for the city's appearance, for pedestrian convenience, and for the reputation of our Chinese community. However, IC's arrest methods are somewhat excessive. Eugene Shan pointed out that the problem of counterfeit vendors is serious. They have even occupied building entrances, affecting the community's image. But he believes the enforcement was too harsh. City Councilman Christopher Marti criticized the ACE operation as an overreach that may undermine sanctuary city laws. New York City Mayor Eric Adams stated that the city is not involved in any federal operation and emphasized that local governments do not cooperate with IC. In an interview, ICE Acting Director Todd Lyons emphasized that New York City will see more ICE enforcement actions in the future because there are too many illegal immigrants committing crimes. China's great slowdown has begun. Housing crash, mass layoffs, and a nation in economic freefall. China's economy is collapsing from within, and the shockwaves are being felt across every generation. What started as a housing market crash has now turned into a nationwide crisis. Factories are shutting down one after another. Unemployment is soaring. And entire streets are filled with people who no longer have homes or hope. Once the pride of China's rapid growth, the real estate market has now become a nightmare. Apartment prices have plunged by more than half in many cities, leaving millions trapped in debt. The financial collapse isn't just a statistic. It's visible in every abandoned construction site, every half-finished skyscraper, and every empty industrial park that used to buzz with life. Beijing-based financial blogger Nervous Croquette warned on October 15th that, from those born in the 1970s to the 2000s, almost every generation has been crushed by real estate and debt. The dream of prosperity has turned into a generational tragedy. The post-80s generation, once hailed as the hardest working generation, rode the wave of urbanization and borrowed heavily to buy homes. They believed in the promise of a better life. But as housing prices collapsed, their assets evaporated overnight. The wealth they built over decades was wiped out, replaced by endless mortgage payments and suffocating anxiety. Many now call their lives a rollercoaster of despair. The first half rising with home values. The second half crushed by falling prices and shrinking paychecks. With property values collapsing, but loans unchanged, they find themselves trapped, unwilling to spend, unable to save, and living in fear of losing what little remains. Shopping malls are empty, restaurants deserted, and domestic consumption has fallen to its weakest level in years. The post-90s generation faces an even harsher reality. They entered adulthood just as China's boom ended. Factories are closing, tech companies are laying off staff, and job fairs look like scenes of silent desperation. Many young graduates, even those returning from overseas, can't find work. Unless they hold a degree from a top university, their diplomas are treated as worthless. Several former internet workers say their companies collapsed or cut staff just weeks after giving promotions. The once glorious tech, real estate, and education sectors are shrinking fast, leaving countless young people jobless. Across major cities, the homeless population is rising sharply. In some industrial zones, laid-off workers sleep under bridges or in train stations, clutching resumes no one will ever read. Social media is flooded with stories of people losing both their jobs and their homes, and quietly vanishing into the shadows of the cities they helped build. As for the post-90s generation, Nervous Croquette calls them the most lucid yet the most powerless. They understand the game is rigged. They know they'll never afford a home or escape debt, so they simply give up. They lie flat, spending their small incomes on short-term happiness rather than long-term plans. Another blogger, Loco God, described the mindset spreading among young people. Spend money as soon as you get it and forget about tomorrow. He compared buying a house in today's China to boarding a pirate ship. Once you get on, you can't get off. Every step, the mortgage, renovations, education, healthcare, becomes another chain that drags people deeper into financial despair. Even China's official numbers are now echoing this gloom. The Consumer Price Index dropped 0.3% year-on-year in September, while factory prices, PPI, recorded two straight months of negative growth. Deflation, overcapacity, and a silent manufacturing collapse are eating away at what used to be the world's second largest economy. From the empty skyscrapers of Beijing to the ghost factories of Guangdong, one message is becoming clear. The Chinese economic miracle has ended, and millions are now paying the price. Shanghai, once known as the Paris of the East, now feels hollow behind its glittering skyline. The streets that once overflowed with shoppers and tourists are eerily quiet. Luxury malls have turned into ghost halls, their high-end boutiques standing empty as brands quietly close their doors. Restaurants that once required reservations now sit half-empty, even during weekends. Taxi drivers complain that there are no passengers, and small businesses have vanished one after another. Once symbols of modern wealth and ambition, the skyscrapers now reflect a city running out of breath. Locals whisper that the energy that once defined Shanghai has disappeared, replaced by silence, debt, and despair. In Beijing, the capital of power and politics, the downturn is just as severe. Cafes near the central business district have shuttered, tech offices stand dark, and white-collar workers are quietly being laid off. Even the once-busy subway lines during rush hour are noticeably less crowded. The younger generation, burdened with rent and falling salaries, now spends evenings in tiny apartments scrolling through job listings that never call back. The luxury cars that once filled the streets are replaced by e-bikes and delivery riders struggling to survive. For many residents, the dream of a prosperous, unstoppable capital has faded, leaving behind a gray, heavy atmosphere that even the city lights cannot brighten. Farther south, Shenzhen and Guangzhou, once the engines of China's manufacturing miracle, are slowing to a crawl. Industrial parks lie silent as factories go bankrupt and export orders vanish. The once lively shopping streets now echo with the footsteps of a few tired workers. Migrant laborers who used to flood these cities in search of opportunity are returning home, empty-handed and defeated. Apartment complexes stand dark at night as tenants move out to save rent. There's no money, no orders, and no future, a factory owner confessed online before closing his business. What were once cities of opportunity are now cities of exhaustion, symbols of an economy that has lost its heartbeat. A Great Depression is descending upon China. From the glittering skyscrapers of Shanghai to the empty factories of Guangdong, every sign points to a nation in deep decline. Unemployment is spreading like wildfire, wages are falling, and consumer spending has collapsed. The once booming cities now feel lifeless, their streets filled with silence instead of ambition. What was once called the Chinese miracle is now turning into the greatest economic downturn in decades. We are about to enter this so-called city of the future, Xiongan New Area. Many Chinese people have heard this name, but almost no one has ever truly set foot here. I just arrived, and what I saw shocked me. This city was built from scratch in 2017, handpicked by Xi Jinping himself as a national project of the century. It was supposed to be China's next Shenzhen or Shanghai. A symbol of progress, technology, and power. But when you walk its streets today, it feels more like the set of a post-apocalyptic movie. Look around. This should be the Sofitel Hotel, yet the roads are empty. No honking, no crowds, not even parked cars. Everything feels too perfect, too clean, too quiet, almost eerie. The buildings rise tall and modern, but the people are missing. The silence echoes through wide boulevards designed for millions. Yet only a handful walk these streets. They say Xiongan follows international standards with Chinese characteristics. But the reality? A lifeless grid of offices, government buildings, and unfinished projects. Since 2017, over 835.4 billion yuan has been poured into this dream. Enough to build three New Yorks. Yet all that stands is a futuristic ghost city, frozen in time, waiting for residents who never came. When night falls, the emptiness becomes haunting. Entire neighborhoods go dark. Rows of brand new apartments without a single light on. The few locals say the old town of Rongcheng still has more life than this new area. Around 80 to 90 percent of the shops are closed. Streets are empty even on weekends. At 4 p.m. on a Saturday, I arrived at Xiongan Railway Station, one of the largest in northern China. It's a massive, gleaming structure that could rival any major international hub. Yet I saw only one traveler, a man with a small backpack. The ticket counter was silent. The clerk staring blankly into the void. Outside, traffic lights changed automatically. But there was no one to cross the street. By 6 p.m., every shop nearby had already closed. During the day, only a few elderly people wander around. The only lively place is the Xiongan outlets. The rest of the city feels abandoned. The government buildings stand tall but eerily silent. Inside the service center, escalators don't move. And the echo of footsteps bounces off the walls. Many locals say they were promised a better life. But after their farmland was taken for this grand vision, they lost everything. No land, no factories, no business. I can't even make six yuan a day, one resident said. Not enough to eat. Those who had their homes demolished receive new apartments they can't sell. And rent barely reaches 1,000 yuan a month. Some are still completely vacant. At night, the silence is suffocating. After 8 p.m., there are almost no cars. Even opening a grocery store here is hopeless. You can get 6 to 12 months free rent. But what's the point when there's no one to rent to? One man joked, if a monkey runs by, everyone gets excited. At least it's something alive. Drone footage on Weibo shows endless rows of identical apartment blocks. All dark, like lifeless models. Xiongan Station, once promoted as the heart of China's next innovation hub, has now become one of the quietest train stations in the entire country. And it's not just Xiongan. Across China, the same story repeats. Zhuhai's Hengshan Island. Tianfu New Area in Chengdu. Ordos in Inner Mongolia. All built with billions, now standing empty. Hengshan was once called the next Macau. But its skyscrapers now echo with silence. Banks have no customers. Luxury towers have no tenants. And the roads have no cars. Xi Jinping once envisioned a future of glittering megaprojects. But what remains are endless ghost cities and broken promises. From the 10 trillion yuan semiconductor dream, to the Belt and Road Initiative, the Beijing Stock Exchange, and Made in China 2025. Nearly every grand plan has turned into another monument of failure. These cities were supposed to be symbols of China's rise. Instead, they have become graveyards of ambition. Silent witnesses to a collapsing dream. Commentators say this emptiness reflects a nationwide crisis. If even top-tier development zones like Hengshan and Xiongan, backed directly by the central government, cannot attract people, what hope is there for others? Since Xi Jinping took office, massive projects like the Xiongan New Area, the Hainan Free Trade Port, and the Hengshan Development Zone have all spiraled into chaos. Critics like Yuan Hongbing and Li Yuanhuang argue that under Xi's dictatorship, the Communist Party itself has become the largest unfinished project. A collapsing empire built on illusions. Across China, hundreds of new areas, innovation cities, and smart zones lie abandoned. The country is littered with ghost highways, ghost airports, and ghost towers. Built for a future that never arrived. Cities like Ordos, Kunming Chengang, Tianfu New Area, and Hengshan once glowed in propaganda videos as symbols of China's miracle. Today they are silent wastelands of steel and concrete. Billions were spent on futuristic skylines. Yet all that remains are dark apartments, empty shopping malls, and broken dreams. The collapse of China's real estate empires has only deepened the nightmare. Giants like Evergrande, Country Garden, Sunak, and Wanke, once praised as engines of growth, are now drowning in debt. Their unfinished towers rise like tombstones over bankrupt cities. Millions of homebuyers are trapped in half-built apartments, paying mortgages for homes that will never be completed. In some areas, desperate residents hang banners reading Deliver Our Homes. But developers have disappeared and local governments pretend not to see. Even smaller developers have fallen like dominoes. From Guangzhou, RNF, to Ximao, Fantasia, and CIFI, one after another declared bankruptcy, leaving entire neighborhoods half-constructed and lifeless. Workers went unpaid, suppliers went bankrupt, and entire supply chains froze. China's property sector, which once made up nearly 30% of GDP, has turned into a black hole, sucking the economy deeper into crisis. Behind the glittering slogans of high-quality development lies a grim reality. The nation is running out of money. Local governments are drowning in hidden debt exceeding 100 trillion yuan, while banks face mounting bad loans and shrinking deposits. Layoffs spread across construction, manufacturing, and finance. Even China's largest cities, Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, are showing signs of stagnation. Businesses are closing, young people are fleeing, and despair is spreading across the country. Experts warn that 2025 could mark the turning point, the year China's economic engine finally stalls. The real estate bubble that sustained the illusion of prosperity has burst, and with it, the foundation of the entire system is crumbling. Ghost cities are no longer isolated accidents. They are becoming the new face of China. From north to south, east to west, entire districts stand silent, unfinished, abandoned. Xi Jinping may dream of national rejuvenation, but the reality unfolding before him is a landscape of ruins. The party's grand projects, its slogans, and its promises are all collapsing under the weight of corruption, arrogance, and fear. As one Chinese scholar said bitterly, Xi wants to save the party, but in the end, he will only walk with it into the grave. Today, the bank finally auctioned off my home. Ten years of blood, sweat, and sleepless nights gone with a single hammer strike. I was once a proud businessman. A few years ago, I took out millions in loans to buy a luxurious riverside apartment, a symbol of success, or so I thought. But since last June, my company began collapsing. I couldn't even afford my monthly mortgage of 12,000 yuan. From the very first missed payment, the bank started haunting me. Endless calls, relentless demands, threats of foreclosure. People talk about the Chinese dream, but for homeowners like me, it's a nightmare. I earn about 6,000 yuan a month. After paying the mortgage, I'm left with 2,000 yuan, barely enough to survive. I've stopped eating out, quit meeting friends, and haven't bought a single new outfit in years. Most days, I bring cold leftovers to work. On the worst days, I survive on instant noodles. This home that once symbolized success has turned into a 30-year shackle. Every day, I wake up asking myself, is this life worth it? A few years ago, property in China's major cities, Shanghai, Beijing, Shenzhen, was seen as untouchable. Prices soared, and people believed they could never fall. But now, that illusion has collapsed. In the past two years, housing prices and transactions have plummeted across China's biggest cities. In August alone, new residential sales in Shanghai dropped 27% month-on-month and 45% year-on-year, the sharpest fall in the country. The magic city has turned into a symbol of loss. With mass layoffs and rising unemployment, countless homeowners are desperately trying to sell, but no one's buying. Some experts warn prices could fall another 50%. In truth, they've already fallen 35% from their peak. One homeowner shared his heartbreak. A young couple once offered him 11.3 million yuan for his apartment, but he refused, insisting on 11.5 million. Today, it's worth just 8 million. In one year, he had lost over 3 million yuan in all his savings. Another story from Hangzhou echoes the same pain. A man bought a home for 3 million yuan, 900,000 down, 2.1 million loan. Monthly payments, 12,000 yuan. He dreamed of a stable life with his wife, but after being laid off, everything fell apart. He sighed, what's the point of saving every penny? You were born with nothing and die with nothing. I've spent my whole life working for the bank. He's already paid 300,000 yuan, but 260,000 of it was just interest. When he and his wife first saw their new home, they were filled with joy, imagining how they decorate it. A few short years later, that dream home is gone, sold to someone else. Do you understand how that feels? He asked. I bought my house for 3 million yuan. Now it's worth 1.4 million. I've lost my down payment. I still owe the bank, and every night I can't sleep. When I walk down the street, it feels like I've lost my soul. This is the reality behind China's collapsing housing market. Tens of millions once believed owning a home meant stability, now it means debt, regret, and despair. The so-called Chinese dream has turned into a 30-year mortgage trap, and for many, it's already too late to wake up. I bought my dream home in Shanghai. Now it's worth half. My life savings are gone. He once proudly shared a video online, a video that broke millions of hearts across China. In it, he revealed that his home's value had dropped by half of his down payment. Within hours, thousands of netizens commented, same here. In Shanghai, properties like his have fallen by at least 1 million yuan in value. He later discovered that his upstairs neighbor had bought an identical apartment, same floor plan, same size, for less than 2 million yuan. The gap between the listing price and the actual sale price? Over 1 million yuan. He forced a smile and said quietly, to say I'm not heartbroken would be a lie. In 2023, he and his wife thought they were turning a new page in life. Buying a home in Shanghai felt like a dream come true. But within a year, that dream turned into a nightmare of disappearing assets and mounting debt. Some tried to comfort him. As long as you don't sell, you haven't lost money. He laughed bitterly. That's just lying to yourself. The market decides your fate, not your hope. Others urged him to sell and cut his losses. But who would buy now? The real estate market was frozen. No one wanted to catch a falling knife. Although the home was for their own use, every time he saw the price drop, it felt like a piece of his soul was being hollowed out. He and his wife came from poor rural families. No background, no powerful relatives. Just two people fighting to build a better life in the city. But now they were drowning in debt. They didn't even own a car. Every day, they rode an old electric bike through the crowded streets of Shanghai, saving every yuan they could. He said, every time I deposit money into my bank account, it's gone in seconds, swallowed by debt. I wake up every morning thinking, how do I save more? How do I pay it all back? How do I make my kids' future better? At night, he lay awake staring at the ceiling, wondering if one day he might break. Still amidst the pain, there was light. Only parents can give their children a bright future. His wife said softly. We started with nothing and ended up with debt. But when I see our children healthy and my husband still fighting, I realize real wealth isn't money, it's family. For a brief moment, he smiled. Life somehow still had sweetness. In Chuzhou, Anhui province, their story continued. They still owned an unfinished apartment there, one that's been sitting unsold for over a year, collecting dust. No one wants to buy it. Her husband keeps working tirelessly to feed the family while she stays home to care for their two children. They live frugally, cutting every possible expense, believing that as long as they stay united, things will eventually improve. But the market tells a cruel truth. In just three years, housing prices there have fallen by nearly two-thirds. Once labeled premium school district housing, prices once soared to 100,000 yuan per square meter. Today, they've collapsed to less than 40,000 yuan. He gave a bitter laugh. How ironic, he said. We were told to buy early or be left behind. Turns out, buying early destroyed us. Another blogger shared his own heartbreak. I bought one home for 1.6 million yuan. Now it's worth 600,000, another for 2 million. Now it can barely sell for 800,000 or 900,000. I've lost over 1 million yuan on each one. He sighed. Those who didn't buy a home back then are the winners now. Those of us who worked, saved, and borrowed, we've become the laughingstock of China's housing collapse. Once, owning a home in China was the ultimate dream, the symbol of success. Now it's the heaviest burden a generation has ever carried. The dream didn't just collapse. It crushed the people who believed in it. Shanghai's housing market, pulling homes no one can afford or escape from. The unthinkable is happening in Shanghai, a city once called China's most unshakable real estate fortress. If prices keep falling at this pace, countless families will be trapped. Not because they can't buy a home, but because they can't sell the one they already own. As of June, the number of secondhand homes listed for sale has soared past 200,000. An all-time record. The market is flooded, but no one's buying. Buyers now treat every viewing like a battlefield, bargaining as if their lives depend on it. A popular blogger recently revealed that his friend bought a home in Putuo District for 3 million yuan in 2019. Now he's lucky to sell it for 1.9 million yuan. Honestly, the blogger sighed. That's already considered a good deal. In Shanghai today, the housing market feels like a sinking ship. Even when apartments in once desirable suburbs, old, cramped, and worn out, are being offloaded for less than 1 million yuan, with some desperate owners accepting under 200,000 yuan just to escape the debt trap. Ironically, those who once envied homeowners are now the lucky ones. People who didn't buy, who were once mocked for missing their chance, have turned out to be the real winners. Meanwhile, those who spent years saving, borrowing, and sacrificing everything for a home now find themselves crushed under loans. One owner confessed bitterly, I took out a 1 million yuan mortgage. I've been paying for years, and I still owe 900,000 yuan. But now my house is worth only 950,000 yuan. I worked half my life, and all I bought was a pile of debt. Fewer than 1,000 secondhand homes were sold across all of Shanghai. That's fewer than 100 homes per day in a city of over 24 million people. For a city once obsessed with property ownership, this is the sound of silence, the death of confidence. No one dares to predict how far prices will fall. But everyone quietly fears that this is only the beginning. Another homeowner shared his own nightmare. His family bought their apartment in 2014, paying around 9,700 yuan per square meter, and spent over 1.8 million yuan in total, counting taxes, renovation, and fees. At first, they believed it was the best decision of their lives. Then came the collapse. Prices slid from 2.68 million yuan the previous year to 2.3 million. And by March this year, only 1.9 million yuan. In less than two years, their investment lost over 700,000 yuan. This is the brutal reality of China's housing market today. A reflection of an era where dreams and debt collided.