{"id":81821,"date":"2026-06-18T21:36:39","date_gmt":"2026-06-19T04:36:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/?p=81821"},"modified":"2026-06-18T21:36:39","modified_gmt":"2026-06-19T04:36:39","slug":"chinese-dissidents-once-hoped-the-us-would-lead-the-world-to-democracy-now-theyre-being-detained-by-ice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/?p=81821","title":{"rendered":"Chinese Dissidents Once Hoped the US Would Lead the World to Democracy. Now They\u2019re Being Detained by ICE."},"content":{"rendered":"
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By<\/span>Rong Xiaoqing<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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For many Chinese dissidents,\u00a0the blueprint drawn by the US\u2019s founding fathers \u2014 despite current democratic backsliding \u2014 remains a beacon and reference point for changes they want to see in their home country.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Guan Heng is an asylum seeker from China who spent five months in ICE detention. (Credit Rong Xiaoqing)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Four months after Guan Heng was released from an immigrant detention facility in upstate New York, the asylum seeker from China is still struggling with sleep. At the supermarket, he says, water bottles with the brand name Sparkling Ice make him flinch.<\/p>\n

Guan, 38, was detained for five months by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), during which he said he experienced the \u201cmost terrifying\u201d time of his life.<\/p>\n

Which is surprising coming from Guan. Years earlier he risked his own safety and freedom when he traveled to western China\u2019s Xinjiang Province. There he documented internment camps that, according to human rights groups, have housed anywhere from 1 to 2 million Uyghur Muslims.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Xinjiang trip was very dangerous. But I could mitigate the risk,\u201d said Guan. His footage \u2014\u00a0released on YouTube in 2021<\/a>\u00a0\u2014 provides rarely seen evidence of China\u2019s human rights abuses targeting its Uyghur minority population. But under U.S. immigrant detention, he added, \u201cthere was nothing I could do.\u201d<\/p>\n

A beacon of democracy<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Guan is among a new wave of Chinese dissidents to seek refuge in the US. Some 80,000 Chinese nationals either came to the country or,\u00a0for those already here, adjusted their status following Beijing\u2019s brutal crackdown on student demonstrators protesting in Tiananmen Square in 1989. Tens of thousands more similarly fled China\u2019s draconian COVID-19 measures during the pandemic.<\/p>\n

For many \u2014\u00a0despite\u00a0current democratic backsliding<\/a>\u00a0\u2014\u00a0the blueprint drawn by the US founding fathers in the Declaration of Independence, 250 years ago remains a beacon and reference point for changes they want to see in their home country.<\/p>\n

Born in the late 1980s, Guan grew up in a resurgent China. The country was brimming with confidence and a rising sense of nationalism. By his early 20s, he began to drift from one short-term job to another. He started traveling abroad and posting clips of his journeys on social media.<\/p>\n

COVID lockdown<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Then COVID hit. Over weeks and months Guan encountered a stream of videos online depicting the struggles of millions under pandemic lockdown. He says this is when his mind began to turn to social issues.<\/p>\n

In early 2020, Guan worked his way past China\u2019s internet firewall. He stumbled onto a satellite image depicting a map of the internment camps in Xinjiang published by the online site Buzzfeed News. Later that year, as COVID lockdown rules eased somewhat, he hopped in his car and headed to Xinjiang to see for himself.<\/p>\n

He arrived in the US the following year, after first flying to Ecuador and then the Bahamas. From there he boarded an inflatable boat and sailed to Florida. He later applied for asylum and eventually settled in New York. The city, he says, felt more \u201creal\u201d to him than his native China.<\/p>\n

\u201cI saw the garbage in Times Square, and homeless people on Wall Street,\u201d said Guan. \u201cIn China, places like this would be made spotless and flawless. But that\u2019s a fake image.\u201d<\/p>\n

Four\u00a0years later, another reality hit.<\/p>\n

On the morning of August 20, 2025, Guan woke up to gun wielding ICE agents in his bedroom in a house in Albany, New York, that he shared with five other Chinese immigrants. The agents arrested Guan, along with two other Chinese nationals who also had asylum cases pending.<\/p>\n

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A rally commemorating the 37th anniversary of the Tiananmen massacre in New York. June
\n4, 2026. (Credit Rong Xiaoqing)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

A sense of betrayal<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Immigration agents detained Zhu Dongdong last October when he went in for a routine check-in in New York.<\/p>\n

Dissidents like Zhu are all too familiar with the horror stories of asylum seekers \u2014\u00a0especially more prominent figures \u2014 sent back to China. Some recount decades-long imprisonment or people who simply disappeared. He worries he\u2019ll be tortured or even executed if he is deported.<\/p>\n

But like many Chinese asylum seekers here, Zhu also describes a feeling of betrayal. That sense is especially acute given his deeply held convictions about the strength and promise of U.S. democracy.<\/p>\n

\u201cI followed their procedure. I have no criminal record,\u201d he said. \u201cWhy arrest me? Isn\u2019t this a country of law and order?\u201d<\/p>\n

Data shows that since Trump\u2019s anti-immigrant crackdown began close to 3,000 Chinese nationals have been\u00a0detained<\/a>\u00a0or\u00a0deported<\/a>. More than\u00a0140,000\u00a0<\/a>Chinese nationals are currently in the US seeking asylum.<\/p>\n

\u2018I have no way back\u2019<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Zhu crossed the Mexican border into the U.S. in 2022 after fleeing China, where he spent 10 days in detention for protesting the government\u2019s COVID policies. Like Guan, he later made his way to New York. One day after arriving, he went to see the Statue of Liberty. While there he read Emma Lazarus\u2019s famous 1883 sonnet etched on the pedestal.<\/p>\n

\u201cI firmly believed those words,\u201d recalled Zhu.<\/p>\n

In November 2023, when Chinese President Xi Jinping met then President Biden in San Francisco, Zhu\u00a0participated in a protest<\/a>\u00a0where he and others were attacked by pepper spray wielding men. He believes they were hired thugs working for the Chinese Communist Party.<\/p>\n

Zhu was unflinching then. But now, after his arrest by ICE and then losing his asylum case, he has slid into severe depression. He is currently appealing his case. \u201cI have to win the appeal. I have no way back,\u201d said Zhu, speaking through a payphone at a detention center in Mississippi.<\/p>\n

\u2018Disappointment runs deep\u2019<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Wan Yanhai runs Information for Chinese Immigrants, a non-profit based in Flushing that helps Chinese dissidents navigate life in the country. A veteran activist, he was among the protesters at Tiananmen nearly 40 years ago.<\/p>\n

\u201cMany Chinese dissidents carry trauma from their fights against the CCP,\u201d said Wan, adding fear of arrest by ICE is now exacerbating that sense of vulnerability.<\/p>\n

Wan is of that generation of Chinese activists who saw in the US an ideal form of governance. \u201cLearning from America was almost a mission for us then,\u201d he said. \u201cThe US defined our understanding of human society.\u201d<\/p>\n

Under the current administration, he admits that long-held belief has now been shaken.<\/p>\n

Zhou Fengsuo, a student leader during the Tiananmen Square protests, embodied the ideals of young pro-democracy activists in China back then. The first public speech he made on the square, on April 18, 1989, was about how China should learn from the American constitution to improve its own.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have deep emotional ties with the US,\u201d said Zhou, who came to the country with the help of the American government. \u201cSo our disappointment in recent years also runs deep.\u201d<\/p>\n

Turning away from Trump<\/strong><\/h2>\n

In his first term, Trump\u2019s tough stances on issues like the trade war and the origins of COVID won the president support from former Tiananmen protesters. Many hoped that he might be the person who would help end CCP rule.<\/p>\n

Liqun Chen was among them. Deeply involved in China\u2019s democracy movement throughout the 1970s, Chen voted for Trump in each of the last three presidential elections. Now she says she is no longer a fan.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were hoping the US would lead the world to democracy,\u201d said Chen, who lives in New York. With Trump expressing admiration for China\u2019s president, Xi Jinping, and his tepid response to defense of Taiwan, among other issues, she says she and many others are withdrawing their support.<\/p>\n

\u201cPresident Trump is more interested in doing business with China. But you cannot trade human rights for business,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

The beacon won\u2019t fail<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Still, many Chinese dissidents maintain their faith in the country\u2019s founding principles. \u201cThe beacon may need to be burnished sometimes, but it won\u2019t fall,\u201d said Chen, \u201cbecause it stems from the people.\u201d<\/p>\n

Perry Link, emeritus professor of East Asian studies at Princeton University and an expert on China\u2019s democracy movement, agrees, noting Chinese dissidents in the US are less apt to be panicked about the dire state of democracy here.<\/p>\n

These individuals, he says, come from a place where there are no restrictions on government power, while in the US the system of checks and balances has restrained the president numerous times.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo see the January 6 rioters as a profound threat to the country makes little sense to people who have witnessed the June Fourth massacre and other CCP outrages,\u201d said Link, pointing to Tiananmen.<\/p>\n

Guan echoes that sense of optimism.<\/p>\n

Still struggling to make ends meet as a deliveryman, he cannot afford to renew the insurance on a second-hand van that lapsed during his detention. Before the arrest, he was working to convert the vehicle into a trailer for a road trip across the US that he wanted to document, much as he had during his earlier travels.<\/p>\n

And he still struggles with the memories of his time in detention, in particular when authorities threatened to deport him to Uganda.<\/p>\n

But, he says, despite all the setbacks, he remains confident in the foundations of American democracy.\u00a0 \u201cWhen I see the public outcry that current immigration policies have triggered, and American citizens dying under ICE\u2019s guns to protect immigrants, I know this country has hope.\u201d<\/p>\n

This story was supported by and co-published with the America\u2019s 250th Project | American Academy of Arts & Sciences.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

ByRong Xiaoqing Jun 18, 2026 For...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-81821","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-opinion","category-u-s-a"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81821","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=81821"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81821\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":81822,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81821\/revisions\/81822"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=81821"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=81821"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=81821"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}