By the numbers: Trump and Biden on the China threat

(The Center Square) – Since January 2021, when President Joe Biden came into office, the number of illegal border crossers has increased exponentially, including from China, as national security threats posed by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and People’s Republic of China (PRC) also increased, officials warn.

Under the Biden administration, the greatest number of Chinese nationals illegally entered the U.S., nearly 160,000, including hundreds who’ve reportedly breached U.S. military bases. The majority illegally entering are single, military age men.

They total the equivalent of 1,600 soldiers in a U.S. Army company, or 160 battalions, or 32 brigades, nearly 11 divisions, or 3.5 corps, according to U.S. Department of Defense data.

That’s more than the 100,000 U.S. troops deployed to Afghanistan at the height of the 20-year conflict.

Whether the national security threat posed by China will be a topic of the CNN-hosted debate Thursday night in Atlanta remains to be seen.

Similar to overall border data, every year since 2021, the number of apprehensions of Chinese illegal border crossers broke the previous year’s record.

In the first nine months of fiscal 2024, from October through May, nearly 56,000 Chinese nationals were apprehended illegally entering the U.S. – the greatest number in recorded U.S. history.

They total more than all apprehensions in fiscal 2023 of 52,700, which was then the highest year on record.

Fiscal 2023’s number nearly doubled the record reached in fiscal 2022 of nearly 28,000, which broke another record reached in fiscal 2021 of nearly 24,000, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection data.

In fiscal 2021 and 2022, more than double and triple the number of Chinese nationals were apprehended illegally entering through the northern border than through the southwest border. The ratio flipped in fiscal 2023 and 2024, when significantly more illegally entered through the southwest border.

By contrast, in the Obama and Trump administrations, there were roughly 15,000 Chinese illegal border crossers at the southwest border alone, averaging 1,000 a year from fiscal years 2007-2021, according to CBP data.

The breaches at the border have raised a range of national security concerns.

In recent years, Chinese nationals accessed military bases and other sensitive sites nearly 100 times, The Wall Street Journal reported last fall, before the illegal border crosser numbers exploded this year.

Officials describe Chinese nationals breaching U.S. military bases as a “potential espionage threat,” the Journal reported. Incidents “range from Chinese nationals found crossing into a U.S. missile range in New Mexico to what appeared to be scuba divers swimming in murky waters near a U.S. government rocket-launch site in Florida.”

The Chinese breaches “appear designed to test security practices at U.S. military installations and other federal sites,” with “Chinese nationals pressed into service and required to report back to the Chinese government,” the Journal reported, prompting congressional inquiries.

Members of Congress also raised concerns about CCP “police stations” operating in major U.S. cities targeting Chinese Americans or allegedly conducting espionage, The Center Square reported. The Department of Justice then filed criminal complaints against Chinese nationals “at large” for allegedly committing crimes on behalf of the PRC.

Cuban-American members of Congress also demanded answers from federal agencies after learning of a Chinese spy base operating in Cuba posing an “imminent threat” to Americans, The Center Square reported.

Earlier this year, FBI Director Christopher Wray said China was “the defining threat of our generation,” The Center Square reported. The CCP “is throwing its whole government at undermining the security and economy of the rule-of-law world. China’s hacking program is larger than that of every other major nation, combined. And if each one of the FBI’s cyber agents and intelligence analysts focused exclusively on the China threat, China’s hackers would still outnumber FBI cyber personnel by at least 50 to 1.”

His warning came as federal authorities issued alerts about “disabling cyberattacks” targeting water and wastewater systems nationwide, reportedly perpetrated by hackers backed by the CCP and governments of Iran and Russia.

Retired U.S. military leaders and other experts have highlighted CCP threats at several congressional hearings as well as about a Chinese criminal underworld involved in fueling the fentanyl crisis and facilitating human and drug trafficking.

Last year, now Border Patrol Chief Jason Owens testified to a House Homeland Security subcommittee about the Chinese threat. “Even without the increase, people coming from the PRC would be of concern to me,” he said. “That’s always going to be a group we look at more closely and work with our partners, with FBI, to make sure they don’t pose a threat.”

But because Biden administration policies created a failed vetting system and backlogged removal process, members of Congress and the DHS Office of Inspector General warn national security risks and terrorist threats are great.