The US has seen a sharp rise in Chinese immigrants crossing the southern border, with more than 3,000 encounters recorded between October 2022 and the end of February 2023, marking a 700% increase over the same period in 2022. Analysts have suggested that China’s deepening income gap and strict pandemic lockdowns are driving the migration, which carries risks of espionage and illegal exchange of information. While Chinese nationals have gained asylum in the US at a comparatively high rate, analysts suggest that illegal immigrants are not ideal for recruiting as intelligence operatives. Legal migrants with ties to Chinese universities, research labs or companies are considered better intelligence recruitment targets. In the first 60 days of 2023, Panama reported 2,200 illegal Chinese immigrants entering the country and heading north from the Darien Gap that defines the border with Colombia.