A foreign policy expert is sounding the alarm over China-state nationals seeping through the U.S. border at alarming rates.
"There are certain Chinese coming in that are really disturbing," Gatestone Institute senior fellow Gordon Chang said on "Mornings with Maria" Monday. "Packs of Chinese males of military age, unattached to family groups pretending not to speak English. These are probably saboteurs who are coming in on the first day of war with Asia."
Last month, there were more than 200,000 Customs and Border Protection (CPB) encounters with migrants at the southern border as officials saw record daily highs before the end of Title 42 in mid-May.
Rep. Mark Green, R-Tenn., claimed last week that "10,000-plus" Chinese nationals have been apprehended this month, "a massive 300% increase."
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May saw some of the busiest days at the border ahead of the end of the Title 42 public health order on May 11. The order had allowed for the rapid expulsion of migrants at the southern border since March 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and its looming end brought fears of a new migrant wave at the border – even amid an already historic crisis.
Chang stressed that while some individuals may be escaping China’s "pessimism" and distressed economy, others come with bad intentions.
"I think that we're going to see acts of sabotage, assassinations, detonation of bombs, starting wildfires," Chang argued. "And the Biden administration is paying no attention to this at all."
China’s economy has largely underperformed this fiscal year, with its exports falling, youth unemployment above 20% and factory activity down. The senior fellow claimed Chinese nationals feel that there’s "no way out" under President Xi Jinping.
"That's why you see these long lines at U.S. consulates in China, people trying to get a visa and the unprecedented surge of Chinese migrants across our southern border," Chang said.
"It's not just the poor, it's also middle class, because those migrants who are coming into Texas and everywhere, they're middle class Chinese because they can afford to pay $35,000 a head to the cartels to smuggle them into the United States," he further explained. "So this is system-wide distress in China: rich, poor, middle class."
An immigration watchdog group recently estimated that there are nearly 17 million illegal immigrants currently living in the United States; and that the number has increased by 16% since President Biden took office in early 2021.
Biden has practiced "horrible diplomacy" with China and along the southern border, Chang warned there are only "bad" outcomes from his policy.
"I hope that the administration backtracks from that, but we'll have to see," the expert noted. "And indeed, this whole executive order on prohibiting investment in China's tech sector that has not actually been issued, and I want to see when that comes. That's going to be the critical test."
When President Biden was asked by reporters Thursday whether referring to Chinese President Xi Jinping as a dictator complicates the U.S. relationship with the People's Republic of China, Biden said, "The answer to your [question] is ‘no.’"
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"I believe that, and I've said this for some time, that the hysteria about the relationship with China is collapsing and moving, etc., etc. We had an incident that caused some confusion, you might say," Biden said. "But Secretary Blinken had a great trip to China. I expect to be meeting with President Xi sometime in the future, in the near term. And I don't think it's had any real consequence."
As of Monday morning, CPB did not return Fox News Digital’s request for comment or response to Chang’s warning.
Fox News’ Adam Shaw and Timothy H.J. Nerozzi contributed to this report.
