Noah, this is one of my favorites articles from you. I think you are right. We should gain far more long term benefit of hard working Chinese American patriots than the insidious Chinese spies crossing our borders that popular belief holds to.
Apr 18, 2023·edited Apr 19, 2023Liked by Noah Smith
I had an office in China many years ago. I closed it because of real fears to our safety. We continued to discover fraudulent audits of Chinese companies listed on US stock exchanges. Our research angered many. Roll forward to 2019 I bumped into an old colleague in KL. Cutting the story short, she said "All educated Chinese with any western travel are trying to leave before they die." Look at emigrants to the US. They are from communists counties or socialist dictatorships. The US is Eldorado the glimmering golden city on a a hill. We need to keep it as Eldorado with good gates but also a welcoming policy.
My family were illegal immigrants to Canada. Of course we weren't called that - we were called 'defectors', because we were from Poland, escaping the evils of communism. There was a fairly rigorous screening process to make sure we weren't spies, but ultimately there was an assumption that we were oppressed people yearning for freedom. Mostly we were yearning for a bit of cash and a nice house, of course. The Canadian dream. We were citizens within four years.
We should extend the same courtesy to Chinese refugees, and the US should too. Yes, maybe a few spies or policemen get through. But every wave of migration from oppressive states has provided incalculable benefits to the US. This one will too.
I am one of the millions of Chinese that came to America for school and stayed for the freedom, in the sense that wrong could be contested and corrected with the principles codified in law.
From my brief time working in China, and from my college-educated middle class friends who still are living in China, I am seeing how the culture of suppression (in all aspects, societal issues, dissents, and self) is warping minds and causing endless pain. Human beings are being turned into controlling machines that perpetuate the vicious cycle. I am grateful that I had the means to escape that.
Though I was alarmed to discover there is a portion of Chinese sharing my background and residing in America actually deep down sympathizing with the political climate in China, to a degree due to nationalist sentiment. This really shows me true enlightenment does not simply come once people are removed from a bad place.
Some years back I half-jokingly proposed that we should invite Hong Kong to move to Detroit. Like, anyone and everyone that lives there and would rather live in the US. Hong Kong needs out from under the thumb of the CCP, and Detroit needs an influx of industrious people to populate its hollowed-out neighborhoods.
Does anyone know the demographics of the Chinese immigrants we are turning away? Since China is an ocean away, the people who are making it here must on average be a bit better off, probably better and more educated than the typical migrant. Also probably younger and employable.
We get more workers at a time when we have a shortage, the communities they settle in get a boost and we get a political win in the struggle against totalitarianism.
"The Chinese taking the Latin America route are generally those with low incomes, education levels and skills"
That's the answer to your question, Noah. We have tons of uneducated and low skilled "asylum seekers" from our own hemisphere already.
"Folks are asylum-seekers or people who just try to escape a bad situation back home. This is a distinction without a difference ... these are people who want to get away from the China that Xi Jinping has created"
Couldn't you just as well say these are people who want to get way from...
the Mexico the cartels have created,
the Yemen the House of Saud has created,
the Vietnam the communists have created,
the Iran the mullahs have created,
the Afghanistan we Americans have created?
There are always people who desire to seek a better life abroad. Why do the Chinese have a special claim that the others do not? What about homeschoolers who are persecuted in Germany (children seized by the state)? What about Algerians in the Paris suburbs? What about Armenians displaced by Azerbaijan and Turkey? What about the residents of the Katwe slums in Uganda? Should we take all of them too? If not, why not?
Your definition ("people who just try to escape a bad situation back home") would effectively require America to take all comers who show up, regardless of education, skills, or cultural compatibility.
Serious question: Do you believe such a policy would be in America's interest? If so, why, and as a scientist, what evidence beyond the platitude that "America is a nation of immigrants" can you suggest to convince those of us who might not share your faith in open borders?
I'd love it if we did as you suggest but, given that the current Democratic admin is literally sending Russians back to Russia knowing that they'll be likely drafted and sent to Ukraine to fight against our interests, I'm not hopeful.
The GOP never ceases to amaze me. Mike Lee, Utah’s senior Senator, looking to keep blocking or turning away immigrants mere weeks after Spencer Cox, Utah’s governor, wrote an op-ed in the Washington Post with Indiana’s governor demanding Congress admit more immigrants and/or let states sponsor their own. They called out Congress for their inaction because it’s stifling growth and negatively impacting business in their states. And their not alone.
Noah, this is one of my favorites articles from you. I think you are right. We should gain far more long term benefit of hard working Chinese American patriots than the insidious Chinese spies crossing our borders that popular belief holds to.
"America's freedom does not belong to just one nation. We're custodians of freedom for the world…"
Absolutely beautiful Noah! 🤘🏽
Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, 🕯️🕯️💡🌞
I had an office in China many years ago. I closed it because of real fears to our safety. We continued to discover fraudulent audits of Chinese companies listed on US stock exchanges. Our research angered many. Roll forward to 2019 I bumped into an old colleague in KL. Cutting the story short, she said "All educated Chinese with any western travel are trying to leave before they die." Look at emigrants to the US. They are from communists counties or socialist dictatorships. The US is Eldorado the glimmering golden city on a a hill. We need to keep it as Eldorado with good gates but also a welcoming policy.
We need to be brain-draining the crap out of China. It’s always been our super power.
Our thoughts on immigration come from the labor surpluses of the 2010s despite our current labor shortage. We always fight the last war.
My family were illegal immigrants to Canada. Of course we weren't called that - we were called 'defectors', because we were from Poland, escaping the evils of communism. There was a fairly rigorous screening process to make sure we weren't spies, but ultimately there was an assumption that we were oppressed people yearning for freedom. Mostly we were yearning for a bit of cash and a nice house, of course. The Canadian dream. We were citizens within four years.
We should extend the same courtesy to Chinese refugees, and the US should too. Yes, maybe a few spies or policemen get through. But every wave of migration from oppressive states has provided incalculable benefits to the US. This one will too.
I am one of the millions of Chinese that came to America for school and stayed for the freedom, in the sense that wrong could be contested and corrected with the principles codified in law.
From my brief time working in China, and from my college-educated middle class friends who still are living in China, I am seeing how the culture of suppression (in all aspects, societal issues, dissents, and self) is warping minds and causing endless pain. Human beings are being turned into controlling machines that perpetuate the vicious cycle. I am grateful that I had the means to escape that.
Though I was alarmed to discover there is a portion of Chinese sharing my background and residing in America actually deep down sympathizing with the political climate in China, to a degree due to nationalist sentiment. This really shows me true enlightenment does not simply come once people are removed from a bad place.
Some years back I half-jokingly proposed that we should invite Hong Kong to move to Detroit. Like, anyone and everyone that lives there and would rather live in the US. Hong Kong needs out from under the thumb of the CCP, and Detroit needs an influx of industrious people to populate its hollowed-out neighborhoods.
Does anyone know the demographics of the Chinese immigrants we are turning away? Since China is an ocean away, the people who are making it here must on average be a bit better off, probably better and more educated than the typical migrant. Also probably younger and employable.
We get more workers at a time when we have a shortage, the communities they settle in get a boost and we get a political win in the struggle against totalitarianism.
It's about as win-win as you can get.
"The Chinese taking the Latin America route are generally those with low incomes, education levels and skills"
That's the answer to your question, Noah. We have tons of uneducated and low skilled "asylum seekers" from our own hemisphere already.
"Folks are asylum-seekers or people who just try to escape a bad situation back home. This is a distinction without a difference ... these are people who want to get away from the China that Xi Jinping has created"
Couldn't you just as well say these are people who want to get way from...
the Mexico the cartels have created,
the Yemen the House of Saud has created,
the Vietnam the communists have created,
the Iran the mullahs have created,
the Afghanistan we Americans have created?
There are always people who desire to seek a better life abroad. Why do the Chinese have a special claim that the others do not? What about homeschoolers who are persecuted in Germany (children seized by the state)? What about Algerians in the Paris suburbs? What about Armenians displaced by Azerbaijan and Turkey? What about the residents of the Katwe slums in Uganda? Should we take all of them too? If not, why not?
Your definition ("people who just try to escape a bad situation back home") would effectively require America to take all comers who show up, regardless of education, skills, or cultural compatibility.
Serious question: Do you believe such a policy would be in America's interest? If so, why, and as a scientist, what evidence beyond the platitude that "America is a nation of immigrants" can you suggest to convince those of us who might not share your faith in open borders?
I'd love it if we did as you suggest but, given that the current Democratic admin is literally sending Russians back to Russia knowing that they'll be likely drafted and sent to Ukraine to fight against our interests, I'm not hopeful.
Excellent analysis 👏 👍
+10.
Immigration is the 1 thing we can solve for, right in front of us. And its great for the country short, medium and long term.
We should be doing much much higher levels of immigration.
This is article is so naive it hurts to read.
😂
Yet another hearty amen, Brother Noah. Freedom means freedom.
Great piece, Noah!
The GOP never ceases to amaze me. Mike Lee, Utah’s senior Senator, looking to keep blocking or turning away immigrants mere weeks after Spencer Cox, Utah’s governor, wrote an op-ed in the Washington Post with Indiana’s governor demanding Congress admit more immigrants and/or let states sponsor their own. They called out Congress for their inaction because it’s stifling growth and negatively impacting business in their states. And their not alone.