China promises to take back illegal migrants after Trump’s Colombia threats

BEIJING – China pledged to accept the return of undocumented Chinese citizens in the US, after US President

Donald Trump threatened to hit Colombia with tariffs

of up to 50 per cent for refusing to take back deported migrants.

“China will receive people who are confirmed as Chinese nationals from the mainland after verification,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said on Jan 27 at a regular press briefing, when asked if Beijing would take back citizens living without documentation in the US.

“The Chinese government firmly opposes any form of illegal migration.”

There were some 210,000 undocumented Chinese migrants in America in 2022, according to the US government, including those from Hong Kong and Macau.

That number has likely risen, with tens of thousands of people with passports from China crossing the US border without proper paperwork since the Covid-19 pandemic ended.

China accepted four planeloads of Chinese migrants living undocumented in the US in 2024, according to a statement from the Department of Homeland Security.

Prior to that, Chinese President Xi Jinping’s government had not accepted such a repatriation flight since 2018, a stretch that included a years-long period when Covid-19 controls closed its borders.

Since Mr Trump returned to office, he has struck a softer tone on China,

threatening Beijing with only 10 per cent tariffs

for failing to stop the flow of fentanyl into America.

That contrasted with swaggering campaign-trail warnings that levies as high as 60 per cent could be on the way. BLOOMBERG