Americans should be alarmed about Chinese nationals streaming across the southern border since Joe Biden became president, Rep. Ashley Hinson, R-Iowa, told Newsmax on Thursday.
"This should certainly keep Americans up at night," Hinson, a member of the House Select Committee on the Strategic Competition between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party, told "American Agenda." "It certainly is what keeps me up at night. If you're following the news of the day today, obviously, with the potential cyberattack [involving AT&T], this is an invasion at our southern border by our adversaries."
In the 2021 fiscal year, there were 450 encounters with Chinese nationals at the southern border, according to Customs and Border Protection data. That figure has rapidly risen to a record 24,314 in fiscal year 2023, and the vast majority are single adults.
In the current fiscal year, which began Oct. 1, there have been 18,755 encounters with Chinese nationals and that means there could be 56,265 for the fiscal year, which would be an increase of 12,403% over fiscal year 2021.
"It was 452 coming over the border over the weekend, and these are all military-age men," Hinson said. "Our national security officials, a bunch of them sent a letter to Congress warning us of what's happening here. I think we should all be eyes open. The CCP is taking advantage of this glaring vulnerability at our southern border, [and] it's not just the CCP.
"If you look at the map of the countries of where we've seen these migrants come in, it's all of our adversaries. It is a glaring vulnerability, and the Biden administration just wants us to look the other way and ignore these coincidences."
Hinson said the House select committee on which she serves held a hearing Jan. 31 in which FBI Director Christopher Wray and Jen Easterly, the director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, talked about a recent advisory they released regarding a China-sponsored cyber group Volt Typhoon and the threat it poses to critical U.S. infrastructure.
"It's very clear our adversaries do not have our best interests in mind," Hinson said. "They want to sow panic, so that's their entire goal, and [that is] what the CCP wants to do. Our war with them is going to be this kind of a fight and hopefully we can deter actual conflicts.
"But I think Americans should be prepared that we need to be tough on China, take them seriously by their actions and what they're doing, not by what they're saying."
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Michael Katz ✉
Michael Katz is a Newsmax reporter with more than 30 years of experience reporting and editing on news, culture, and politics.
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