Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said on Monday that China will accept repatriation of Chinese nationals who illegally entered the United States.
Mao was responding to a question about Colombian President Gustavo Petro’s disastrous, and quickly reversed, attempt to turn back the first deportation flights from the Trump administration.
“As a matter of principle, the Chinese government firmly opposes any form of illegal immigration activities. We have also carried out pragmatic cooperation with the immigration law enforcement agencies of relevant countries, including the U.S., and achieved positive results,” said Mao.
“Regarding the repatriation, China’s principle is to verify first and then repatriate. We will accept Chinese citizens who are verified to be from the Chinese mainland,” she said.
The topic of deportation flights came up because a reporter asked Mao about the brief clash between Petro and President Donald Trump over flights to Colombia. Petro reneged on an agreement to accept the deportees and launched an online tirade against Trump. Trump threatened to slap Colombia with 25-percent tariffs, and ratchet them up to 50 percent if Petro refused to cooperate. Petro suddenly became very cooperative.
Colombian President Gustavo Petro (Ivan Valencia/AP)
“This is a matter between the U.S. and Columbia. We hope that the two countries will properly resolve it,” Mao said of the dispute between Trump and Petro.
The Foreign Ministry spokeswoman’s understated comments were notable, since China has been working to build influence in Latin America and usually misses no chance to play up any conflict that might cast the United States or other Western nations in a bad light.
China’s state-run Global Times, a Communist Party operation that sometimes responds to events with more hyperbole than the Chinese government’s public statements, was similarly muted when reporting Mao’s remarks on Monday.
“The White House said late Sunday local time that Colombia’s President Gustavo Petro had agreed to accept deportation flights from the U.S.,” the Global Times reported, without dwelling on anything Trump and Petro might have said before that.
Department of Homeland Security (DHS) officials told Reuters on Monday that contrary to Mao’s demure comments, China often refuses to cooperate with repatriation. DHS has warned Beijing that it could face sanctions and other consequences for refusing to accept tens of thousands of Chinese nationals who illegally crossed the U.S. border.
“The number of Chinese citizens encountered crossing the United States southern border without permission surged in recent years, from negligible to tens of thousands, as China’s economy faced headwinds and U.S. visas were harder to acquire due to COVID-19 restrictions,” Reuters explained.
Deportation flights to China began ramping up in December, after the United States presidential election was settled. DHS applauded the Chinese government for closer cooperation with U.S. immigration law.
Immigration lawyer Chen Chuangchuang told Voice of America News (VOA) in December that Chinese dictator Xi Jinping reconciled himself to repatriation by choosing to view it as a “law enforcement” issue, rather than a “border and immigration” issue.
“In the past, China rarely cooperated with the U.S. government in accepting illegal migrants,” Chen noted.
Chen advised Chinese migrants with legitimate fears of being persecuted by their authoritarian government to apply for asylum.
“It’s not easy, though. The standard will be raised,” he cautioned.
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