Climbers (part one): A way out of China

**Alice Su** (0:08)
This summer, I went to report a China story in a place I'd never expected to find one. The deserts, jungles and borders of the Americas.

**SPEAKER_2** (0:17)
Isn't that group Chinese?

**Alice Su** (0:18)
Okay, I'm going, Marguerite.

**SPEAKER_3** (0:20)
Okay.

**Alice Su** (0:32)
I wanted to meet Chinese people on a journey that's come to be known as zǒu xiàn, or walking the line. It's a striking new trend that's emerged in the last two years. Chinese migrants fly across the world to South America then make their way on boats and buses and on foot across some of the wildest stretches of the planet to reach one place, the United States of America.

**SPEAKER_5** (1:02)
The infamous Darién Gap on the border between Colombia and Panama is the only land route between South and North America. Those attempting to cross it risk robbery and death.

**Alice Su** (1:16)
This route is taken by many desperate migrants from countries torn apart by war, crime, and poverty.
But in the last few years, more and more Chinese people have been taking this route to reach the US too. Last year, there were more than 37,000. That's nearly 10 times more than the year before, and 50 times more than the year before that. And that surprised me. Because China is a superpower. It's the second largest economy in the world. It's at peace, and it's strong enough to challenge America for global dominance. I wanted to understand, who are these Chinese migrants? What is driving them out of China? And what awaits them in America?

**SPEAKER_6** (2:15)
The greatest invasion in history is taking place right here in our country. They are coming in from every corner of the earth. They're coming at levels that we've never seen before.

**SPEAKER_3** (2:25)
I reject the choice that suggests we must either choose between securing our border or creating a system of immigration that is safe, orderly and humane. We can and we must do both.

**Alice Su** (2:43)
These migrants are crossing the US border illegally. But once they do so, most of them try to stay by turning themselves into the border patrol and seeking asylum. If the US grants them asylum, they can stay legally and one day, eventually, become citizens. This is not a story about the geopolitical sweep of great power competition. It's about the most basic dream that both America and China promise to its people, that of a better life. It's about Chinese individuals who've lost hope in China's ability to fulfill that dream, but still believe in the American promise.
I'm Alice Su, The Economist's Senior China Correspondent. This is the first episode of Climbers, a four-part series on Drum Tower in which we meet Chinese migrants and follow them on their Zouxian journey, from the deadly jungle in Colombia all the way to the Chinese neighborhood in LA where they're starting to build their new lives. But not all of them will make it. This week, we head to a tiny town on the Colombian coast where Chinese migrants began one of the most dangerous legs of the journey. We ask, why are they taking such a risk? Are they prepared for what lies ahead? And for those who do make it all the way to America, will it be worth it? This is Drum Tower, from The Economist.
We've just arrived in this beach town called Nicocli. It's on the coast of Colombia, and it's gorgeous. In June this year, I went to Nicocli, a remote tourist town in Colombia, right on the edge of the Caribbean Sea. But it's not your typical holiday destination. You know, there's all these things that make it very unusual. For one thing, when you go along the beach, there are all of these tents set up. Basically, there are migrant encampments, and you see that there are migrants there, mostly from Venezuela, but also from Haiti and from other parts of the world. Some of them have been living there for months. They have mats set up. They have their children there. Some of them are getting haircuts at night, which shows you just kind of how long they've been here, trying to save up enough money to go on the next leg of their journey. Nkokli is a tiny town being pulled in two opposite directions. You see these cheap, colorful hostels everywhere, Western tourists drinking cocktails on the sand, party music in the background, but also migrants living in tents and humanitarian groups giving out water in between the beach bars. Migrants are coming here from all over the world because it's a well-established starting point for this route to the United States. This tiny town is the last spot where migrants can visit ATMs and supermarkets before they enter the jungle, the Darién Gap. My producer Marguerite Howell and I came here because we knew that everyone who crosses the Darién Gap goes through this town. When we arrived in Nicocli, I found it hard to imagine that we'd actually find any Chinese people here. To get here, I'd taken three flights from Taipei, flying more than 30 hours, and then driven across bumpy roads surrounded by cows and banana plantations, and everyone was speaking Spanish. It felt so far away from the world I usually report on. But I'd seen the stats. According to Panama's government, in 2023, more than 25,000 Chinese people crossed the Darién Gap, making them the fourth largest nationality just behind Venezuela, Ecuador and Haiti. More than 10,000 Chinese people had crossed the Darién in the first five months of this year alone. So there had to be some Chinese migrants here. So we were just walking around here and I was getting kind of nervous because I wasn't sure if we would find Chinese people. But after about 10 minutes of walking through the town, we came to this hotel where our local guide says a lot of Chinese people usually gather. And as we approached, I could see there was like this group of Chinese people just standing in a circle on the porch. And we approached them and I talked to them. I said, are you from China? And they said, yes, we are. And I asked them, you know, what are you doing here? And they're kind of like, what do you think we're doing? Obviously, we're we're walking together. And what they mean is that they're going together on this smuggling route up to the US. The Chinese people said they were walking together, or walking the line. In the last two years, this term walking, Zouxian, has become an online slang term in Chinese social media for smuggling to the United States through South and Central America. Zouxian started going viral in 2022 when China lifted its zero COVID restrictions and people started exiting the country. Chinese migrants posted videos of themselves crossing the jungle on Douyin and Kuai Shou, the Chinese versions of TikTok. Some of them had a distinct influencer vibe. They would put adventurous music over videos of themselves trudging through the mud.