Experience and reflection of Chinese students being sent to the “little black house” and deportation at the US airport-BBC News

It used to be a very normal day, a very normal airport switching flight.

Li Ming (pseudonym), an international student from Mainland China, is like the thousands of people in a hurry at Detroit Airport in the United States. He hurriedly walked to prepare to go through customs, transfer flights, and go to his destination on the journey, and take classes before the start of the new semester. Prepare.

Unexpectedly, it was not the long queue of passengers who stepped into the customs area to greet him, but a few serious American border security policemen.

Li Ming was taken into a “small black room” and sat there for several hours.

There are many indications that as tensions in the US-China relationship have intensified, the fact that Chinese students from mainland China like Li Ming received “attention” from law enforcement agencies in the United States reached a peak during the Trump administration. It also continues to happen during the tenure of the Deng government.

“When things happened, I felt weird. It felt like a movie scene happened to me,” Li Ming recalled. “They don’t speak well in language, and their purpose is to get you to confess.”

Li Ming was so ignorant that he stepped into the “little black room” for the first time. The so-called “little black house” is actually the Secondary Inspection (Secondary Inspection) at the US port of entry.

According to his memories, there were two customs officers in the house who were in charge of interrogating him-“one singing with a white face and the other with a black face”. The “black-and-white face” customs police asked Li Ming many questions for details, including the name of the manager where he had previously practiced. Li Ming said that when he replied that it had been too long for him to remember clearly, the customs police immediately accused him of “lying.”

Li Ming also recalled that the customs officer also asked about the details of the experiments he had done before. Since he used Chinese in China before, he could not remember the professional terminology in English, and he was “ashamed” to “deceive people”.

A few hours after the second review of the “Little Black Room” at Detroit Airport, Li Ming was directly deported to China from the airport.

According to an e-mail issued by the Office of International Students at Michigan State University where he works, the “second review” is a further investigation of the immigrants questioned by the police to verify the information. During the second review, customs officials may require the recipient to provide additional identification and detailed purpose of coming to the United States. At the same time, the baggage of the subject will be searched thoroughly, including searching for information stored on electronic devices, and even social media information and e-mails will also be required to view.

According to the U.S. government, although the U.S. police usually conduct searches for law enforcement, especially the search of personal electronic items that people carry with them, including mobile phones, that contain private information, the courts need to authorize, while the airport is an exception. As long as border law enforcement officers “have reasonable suspicion,” they can search the traveler’s side objects, including electronic supplies.

At the same time, Michigan State University also reminded students that although it is currently uncertain whether they will be required to provide the relevant account name and password, refusing to cooperate will result in being deemed “unauthorized.” Not only that, American citizens have the right to ask a lawyer to be present during the second review, but non-citizens generally do not have this right.

Information from related parties shows that since the era of US President Trump (Trump), with the increasingly tense US-China relations, Chinese students studying in the US seem to be caught in the middle of the national game.

The website of the U.S. Department of Justice entered “Chinese student” in English as the key search term. What immediately appeared was a statement that two Chinese students were charged with crimes on January 28, 2020. Among them, 29-year-old Ye Yanqing (pronounced Yanqing Ye) was arrested. Prosecution of “visa fraud”, “false statement”, and “acting as an agent and conspiracy of foreign governments”. Another 30-year-old Chinese student, Zaosong Zheng, was arrested at Boston’s Logan International Airport and charged with “attempting to smuggle 21 bottles of biological research drugs to China.”

Information from various sources shows that the U.S. government’s suspicion of Chinese students seems to have reached a peak before the 2020 general election. Former President Trump signed a policy announcement on May 29, 2020, banning “communications with the Chinese People’s Liberation Army”. Connected Chinese graduate students and researchers enter the United States.” In the Chinese student circle in the United States, everyone knows what the above announcement refers to, that is, the so-called “National Defense Seven Sons” of Chinese institutions of higher learning-Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Beijing Institute of Technology, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin Engineering University , Northwestern Polytechnical University, Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Nanjing University of Science and Technology and other sensitive majors.

The former Deputy Attorney General John Demers during the Trump administration of the United States explained how the police decide which foreign students to search at the airport in a speech at a think tank in Washington. He said that the selection of candidates by the border police is not random but “targeted.” One of the most important points is the colleges and universities the students studied in China and the majors and subjects they studied in the United States.

The former U.S. Assistant Secretary of State David Stilwell also explained in an interview with the BBC that the United States continues to “open” the door for Chinese students who really come to the United States to study, but if the students just “disguise”, then the United States will also “self defensive”.

Many Chinese students once believed that the “strict” policy towards students from mainland China might gradually improve after the change of the US government. However, since the Biden administration took office for a period of time, at least the actual situation in the foreign student community seems to have not changed much, and the doubts and suspicions of Chinese students have not been completely removed.

In September 2021, Hong Kong’s South China Morning Post reported that Chinese students were detained at Houston Airport for more than 50 hours and then deported. “The United States also repeatedly questioned whether these students are Communist Party members or not during the interrogation process. Chinese government services”.

Data from the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Bureau also shows that although Chinese students still account for the highest proportion of foreign students in the United States, there are still 382,561 mainland students studying in the United States in 2020, but the number of Chinese students has decreased compared with 2019 19.38% (91936 people)-nearly 20%.

Other data show that although the suspicion of Chinese students is relatively more prominent in the United States, the United States is definitely not the only country that has begun to “beware” of Chinese students due to changes in attitudes towards the Beijing government.

In a report “Picking flower, making honey” by the Australian Institute for Strategic Policy, the author Alex Joske stated that since 2007, “The People’s Liberation Army has funded more than 2,500 military scientists and Engineers study abroad and establish relationships with researchers and institutions around the world“, especially with the “Five Eyes Alliance” countries-the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, New Zealand and Australia.

Josco’s report also wrote: “In China, the PLA is very straightforward about overseas research cooperation.” He quoted the “Liberation Army Daily” as saying that the purpose of studying abroad is to “go to foreign countries to pick flowers and return to China to make honey.” That is, the Chinese military hopes to seek to use overseas cutting-edge expertise, research and training to develop better products for itself. Military technology.

The author of the report also stated that dozens of PLA scientists in order to travel to the “Five Eyes Alliance” countries and the European Union,” concealed “their military background,” suggesting that universities and governments of various countries need to be aware of this problem and take action against such a situation. Understand and limit.

Some students interviewed said that although they understand the political, military, economic, and technological game between the United States and China, the game at the national level is, for ordinary students, a longing-for study abroad career. But it is tantamount to causing an unsuspecting disaster. Most students said that they just want to go to school, but facing the suspicion and suspicion of the host, they seem to be as helpless and helpless as Li Ming who sits in the “small black room”.

It has been a while since the “little black house” and the repatriation, but Li Ming still remembers that experience when he talked about it.

It is said that because the two customs officers did not believe his answer, they began to check his salute and mobile phone, and asked him to wait outside the house during the search.

“They found a photo of my past military training, saying that I have a military background,” Li Ming said helplessly. “I said that as long as there are people who have studied in China, they say it is impossible. There are none of the Chinese students I have met.”

According to the information on China’s Baidu Encyclopedia, Chinese schools have “military training” programs from elementary school to university, and the time is generally set before the start of school in September or after National Day in October.

The encyclopedia also introduced: “Primary school and junior high school students mainly train basic team arrangements and movements, and should not be over-trained. On the basis of the team arrangement, high school students train daily abilities such as housekeeping and emergency evacuation, and conduct lectures on national defense knowledge. Technical school students and college students receive formal military training and earthquake emergency evacuation training, usually 10-30 days for boys and 5-15 days for girls. Candidates for the unified national examination for admissions to ordinary colleges and universities must participate after they are admitted by ordinary colleges and universities. Military training”.

On the day he was deported, Li Ming reluctantly contacted the school immediately. Fortunately, the school understood his situation and not only provided him with advice on how to deal with the problem, but also indicated that it would provide legal aid. It is reported that the school specially issued two written certificates for Li Ming, hoping that he can “continue his studies.”

After some setbacks, Li Ming was finally able to return to the American campus in the winter semester of 2021. It is understood that in addition to him, there are “a small and a half people” in his school that has been censored. The process takes two to three months. Therefore, some people, like him, have been delayed for half a year before returning to campus again.

Recalling this “bizarre” experience over the past year or so, Li Ming believes that although his experience may be somewhat random, as long as the relationship between the United States and China is not eased, similar things are very likely to happen again.

Li Ming also specifically hopes to give all Chinese students coming to the United States a kind advice: Before entering the customs, you must make some preparations, familiarize yourself with all aspects of your situation and how to express it in English, so that you can respond well to the “little black room”. Prepare.

“If you are unfortunately deported like me, you must contact the school. I sent an email to the principal, and the principal returned to me. At that time, I felt that the school paid much attention to this matter,” he said.