Vietnamese newspapers are filled with the reports of dozens of Chinese nationals migrating illegally into Vietnam. This can be considered as the first indications of China’s impoverishment.
The Coronavirus Pandemic, the man-made floods in Central China villages and the exodus of multinational companies from China following the US-China trade war are compelling Chinese citizens to wander into Vietnam in search of livelihood. It is quite a blot on China, as the world’s second-largest economy now seems incapable of feeding its citizens, which is why they are migrating to a tiny island.
According to Vietnam Insider, two local women were arrested in the last week of July for letting nine Chinese nationals to enter the Southeast Asian country. Vietnam Times also reported that 21 Chinese nationals were arrested last month for illegally entering in Vietnam. Another ten illegal Chinese immigrants were arrested by the Vietnamese Police in the last week of July.
Mimi Vu, an independent Vietnamese-American anti-trafficking expert, believes that the Chinese citizens are making use of extremely porous 1,400-km long border between China and Vietnam, characterised by complicated geography including the mighty mountains and treacherous rivers, which makes it difficult for the Vietnam’s border troops and law enforcement agencies to double down on illegal immigrants.
Vietnam is cracking down on the Chinese nationals illegally entering Vietnamese territory, even as it struggles to curb a fresh COVID-19 outbreak. Hanoi banned the entry of foreigners and suspended the cross-border flights. Only those who were repatriated and some foreigners have now been allowed under strict conditions, including a mandatory quarantine for 14 days.
Vietnamese Major General ToAn Xo, Chief of the office of the Ministry of Public Security, confirmed that there has been an increase in illegal immigration from other countries, particularly China.
Major General Xo has enlisted the Coronavirus Pandemic and natural disasters as the primary reasons behind the entry of Chinese nationals into a relatively safe Vietnam, to find work. He informed that 177 Chinese nationals had entered Vietnam since June.
According to SCMP, the Saigon-based expert, Mimi Vu, said that more Chinese nationals might enter the Southeast Asian country to find work as factories have been relocated from China to Vietnam in wake of the trade war between the Trump administration and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
Chinese nationals are seeing Vietnam as the perfect destination to seek employment and livelihood, because, Vietnam has emerged as the biggest manufacturing behemoth after China’s downfall. Last year, it was reported by the Nomura Group that out of the 56 companies which shifted their production out of China, 26 relocated to Vietnam.
Last month, 30 Japanese companies also shifted their production bases to other countries, and 15 of them chose Vietnam. Vietnam is enriching at the Dragon’s expense and this is why Chinese nationals are desperately migrating to Vietnam.
China is facing the worst floods situation since 1998, with water levels in the Yangtze River rising to record highs and putting the gigantic Three Gorges Dam at the risk of getting collapsed. It had a ‘brilliant’ solution to this issue- diverting the floodwater into its rural areas and sacrificing its villages to save big cities like Wuhan.
Due to this absolutely out of the box solution of China, Chinese villages are getting submerged in floodwater, and with literally no information coming out of China, we have no real estimate about the number of homes, businesses and livelihoods that would have been brutally destroyed throughout the Middle Kingdom because the CCP wanted to save certain bigger cities.
The country’s economic growth has hit a dead end. It is no longer in a position to woo the manufacturing firms which had once scripted Beijing’s growth story; the floods have proved to be the last straw. Parts of China don’t have much interest left in their home country- the exodus of factories resulting into unemployment, and man-made disasters like COVID-19 and artificial floods translate into lack of safety.
The reports about illegal Chinese immigrants getting arrested in Vietnam can also be seen as a huge denial of the CCP’s superpower ambitions. If China cannot look after its citizens, it might as well have to give up its ambitions of emerging as a Great Power and dominating the post-Pandemic world order.