China has quietly resumed cooperation with the United States on the repatriation of Chinese migrants illegally stranded in the U.S.
The U.S.-China repatriation cooperation resumes amid the influx of Chinese migrants across the southern border of the United States.
China halted the cooperation in August 2022 as part of retaliation over the visit to Taiwan by then-Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi.
Beijing considers the self-ruled island a breakaway province that must one day reunite with the mainland — by force if necessary — and opposes any official contact between Taipei and foreign governments, especially Washington, which supplies weapons for Taiwan to defend itself.
Since the cooperation was halted, the U.S. has seen a spike in the number of Chinese migrants entering illegally from Mexico.
U.S. border officials in 2023 arrested more than 37,000 Chinese nationals at the southern border, nearly 10 times more than in 2022.
China’s Foreign Ministry this week told the AP Beijing was “willing to maintain dialogue and cooperation in the area of immigration enforcement with the U.S.” and would accept Chinese nationals who were deported.
The resumption came after Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas in April told the U.S. and China were holding high-level talks on the issue.
The New York Times reported that 100,000 Chinese nationals are living in the U.S. despite final orders for deportation.
The number of Chinese migrants illegally entering the U.S. on its southern border has shown a downward trend this year, after a record spike in December.
U.S. Customs and Borders Protection (CBP) said that while there were nearly 6,000 arrests of Chinese nationals in December, there were 3,700 in January, 3,500 in February, and just over 2,000 in March.
