China complains about U.S. treatment of its migrants, ‘major drug source country’ listing

A top Chinese official demanded the U.S. stop “harassing” Chinese students when they arrive at U.S. airports and called on the Biden administration to end visa sanctions that punish China for refusing to cooperate in taking back deportees.

Wang Xiaohong, minister of public security, made the demands over the weekend with Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas in a meeting the U.S. said was supposed to focus on cooperation in cutting the flow of fentanyl chemicals from China through Mexico and into the U.S.

The Chinese government filed a formal protest several weeks ago over the border inspections, complaining that students arriving particularly at Washington Dulles International Airport faced hours of detention and some were deported after their answers were satisfactory.

China called the inspections “politically motivated.”

Mr. Wang also complained to Mr. Mayorkas that the U.S. lists China as a “major drug source country.”

Biden administration officials said the designation is demanded by law and isn’t meant to offend, but rather to reflect the reality of the situation. A senior official said it shouldn’t affect cooperation between the two nations.

President Biden emerged from a meeting with President Xi Jinping in November to say China agreed to do more to stem the flow of fentanyl precursor chemicals, which had been flooding into Mexico, where drug cartels manufactured fentanyl and then sent it across the U.S. border and into American communities.

U.S. officials said Tuesday that they’ve seen China take concrete steps since that meeting to name Chinese companies behind some of the shipments.

But when asked if they had noticed a drop in the flow of chemicals, the U.S. officials demurred.

The officials said immigration wasn’t the point of the meeting but did pop up, with China’s complaints about being labeled a “recalcitrant” country in terms of cooperating on deportations.

That’s a particularly large problem for the U.S. currently as tens of thousands of Chinese migrants are jumping the border.

Customs and Border Protection said it encountered nearly 53,000 unauthorized migrants from China last year. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said it completed just 288 deportations back to China.

“It is the case that the [People’s Republic of China] needs to do more to accept its nationals that are subject to final orders or removal,” a senior U.S. official told reporters after the Mayorkas-Wang meeting.

The Biden team also rejected complaints about the treatment of arriving students who have legal visas.

“U.S. officials at ports of entry have a responsibility to conduct inspections of individuals entering the United States,” an official said. “We hold our officials at the Department of Homeland Security to the highest standards.”