ABSTRACT
When, in the summer of 1993, Chinese people from the ill-fated freighter Golden Venture were washed ashore on a New York beach, Americans learned about a far-flung Chinese network that smuggled human cargo. Most of the boat people were from Fujian province in southern China, and their smugglers were Taiwanese from across the Straits. Market reforms in coastal China have, ironically, fueled a “get-rich” fever, making Fujianese eager to resume their distinctive, centuries-old tradition of going overseas to make a fortune. Many turn to smuggling syndicates, which have connections in Taiwan, Hong Kong, Southeast Asia, and Central and South America, to slip them into the United States. After the U.S. immigration service cracked down on the freighters, smugglers instead sent their clients, armed with false documents made in Hong Kong or São Paulo, through American airports.
