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Before Trump's Beijing visit, US warns China with visa sanctions over stalled deportations of migrants: Report
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China is slowing its efforts to repatriate Chinese nationals who are in the U.S. illegally, a senior Trump administration official told Reuters, warning that Washington was prepared to increase travel restrictions on the country if Beijing didn't reverse course. The new U.S. threat toward China comes just days before President Donald Trump's planned May 14-15 visit to Beijing, where, among other issues, he is expected to raise the deportation issue during meetings with his counterpart Xi Jinping.The trip is an important one for Trump, who is hoping to win trade concessions from Beijing that he can present to voters ahead of November's midterm elections that polls suggest could deliver losses for the president's Republican party.Since returning to the White House early last year, Trump has threatened tariffs and sanctions on numerous countries for failing to accept deportees, a central pillar of his campaign for the White House and hard-line immigration policies.China for years has resisted U.S. requests to take back tens of thousands of its citizens who have overstayed or illegally entered the country.When Trump took office, China had suggested it was willing to repatriate "confirmed Chinese nationals" following verification. But Beijing has said doing so takes time.After accepting about 3,000 deportees via charter and commercial flights in early 2025, China has scaled back cooperation in the past six months, the senior U.S. official said. The official spoke on condition of anonymity in order to speak candidly about administration plans.China "refuses to fully cooperate with the United States to take back its citizens," the official said, calling it a violation of China's international obligations and responsibility toward its people.The official said that if China didn't increase cooperation on deportations, the United States would consider increased cash bonds accompanying visa applications, as well as denying more visas and blocking more entries at the border. "Inaction by the Chinese government will jeopardize future travel for law-abiding Chinese citizens," the official said. The Chinese embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment.Previously Beijing has said it opposes illegal migration, and calls it an "international issue that requires cooperation between countries." Tens of Thousands Await RemovalTrump has pursued a hard-line immigration policy, including an aggressive deportation drive, revocations of visas and green cards, and checks of social media posts and past speeches of immigrants.During the Biden administration, the number of Chinese nationals illegally crossing the U.S. southern border surged from negligible numbers to tens of thousands, as China's economy faced headwinds and U.S. visas were harder to acquire due to COVID era restrictions.There are now more than 100,000 undocumented Chinese nationals in the U.S., the official said. More than 30,000 have final orders of removal, and of those, authorities have detained more than 1,500 awaiting deportation. Most in this last category have committed other crimes, the official said.Independent estimates of the number of undocumented Chinese nationals in the U.S. vary. The Migration Policy Institute (MPI) said that in mid-2022 as many as 239,000 Chinese immigrants were not authorized to be in the country. Other countries with large numbers of undocumented people in the U.S., including India, are fully cooperating with the U.S., the official said.The U.S. wants Beijing to provide travel documents and approve Customs and Border Protection charter flights with deportees, paid for by the U.S., to land in the country. Under Section 243(d) of the Immigration and Nationality Act the U.S. can place visa sanctions on countries deemed "recalcitrant" in complying with repatriation requests, a label the Department of Homeland Security has routinely applied to China. U.S. authorities going back to the Obama administration have said they believe
The Economic Times Opening Bell : Markets likely to make flat-to-positive start ahead of states election results Investment Guru India Stock market today: Nifty50 above 24,250; BSE Sensex rallies over 800 points as oil prices ease, state election results in focus The Times of India Sensex, Nifty surge in early trade on May 4 The Hindu
By Pratim BoseKolkata: West Bengal maintains connectivity to 8% of India’s landmass in the northeast that shares a border with China and Myanmar, among others. However, the geopolitically important state has sustained consistent declines in its economic fortune over the last six decades. There have been demographic changes, too. The assembly election result, therefore, is crucial—the new government in the state would need to press the accelerator on attracting manufacturing investments while investing in human resources and infrastructure. In short, the tough task is to meet people's aspirations by reinvigorating growth.The pivot to low skillsThe ‘Bhadrolok’, or upper-class groups, of Kolkata were shamed when they read about how the rest of India is complaining of a shortage of house-helps, as Bengal reported 92% polling across a two-phased poll. From exporting the meritorious, a trend that began during the Naxalism era of the 1970s, and consolidated in the 1990s, the state now exports low-skilled workers across the country.The key lies in the fall in Bengal’s position in terms of per capita income, from the third position in 1961-62 to 24th nationally, according to an EAC-PM Working Paper, ‘Relative economic performance of Indian states: 1960-61 to 2023-24’.West Bengal held the third-highest relative per capita income among states in 1960-61, with an average income of about 127.5% of the national average, even higher than that of states like Gujarat, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, etc.“But its growth failed to keep pace with national trends. As a result, its relative per capita income declined to 83.7% in 2023-24, falling below that of even traditionally laggard states like Rajasthan and Odisha,” the paper stated.In fiscal 2025, per capita income at current prices stood at ₹181,786, per India’s statistics ministry, far below the national average of ₹2,34,859. Of the four major states that just completed assembly polls, West Bengal’s income was above only that of Assam.Anecdotal evidence suggests agri wages are lower in West Bengal compared to the richer states. No wonder then that Bengalis are crowding out the low-skill job markets, from Kashmir to Kanyakumari.Distinct in declineBengal has been a front-runner state in population control and now ranks among the states with India’s lowest total fertility rate (TFR).According to a paper in Economic & Political Weekly, published in 2024, West Bengal is exhibiting a concerning TFR of 1.4, "posing a threat to sustainable population growth”. As per the fifth round of the National Family Health Survey (NFHS), conducted by MoHFW during the year 2019-21, the fertility rate in West Bengal was 1.6 children per woman, below India’s TFR of 2.0.A TFR of 2.1 is considered replacement level fertility—the average number of children a woman would need to have to keep the population size stable from one generation to the next.The population has started shrinking in cities, starting with Kolkata. The figures for the city have not been released, but state health officials claim Kolkata’s TFR was at 1.1. Economist Sanjeev Sanyal believes urban Bengal is at 1.2, similar to Japan’s rate.Meanwhile, the aspirations of at least two generations of families have remained unfulfilled due to the failure to trigger growth. In the last 13 years, West Bengal’s real GDP growth rate was lower than the national average in 11 instances, as per data from the statistics ministry.Politics has patronised dole-oriented sub-optimal living. Jobs are plenty, claims the state government. It forgets to point out that they are low-yielding and the prospects for upward mobility are limited. In other words, while the unemployment rate, according to Periodic Labour Force Surveys, is lower than the national average, they don’t reflect the underemployment or the state’s wage crisis.Struggling rural economyIncumbent Mamata Banerjee is not responsible for the decline in the state’s economic fortune for over half a century. But sh
The ECI has started the counting of the votes across all counting centres and the early trends show a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) surge in the state after 15 years. The BJP has already crossed majority mark of 148 seats as per early trends being streamed on TV channels.ECI West Bengal Election Results: No rallies celebrating the victory of candidates will be allowed anywhere in West Bengal on Monday, a senior official of the Chief Electoral Officer's (CEO) office said.The official also said the poll panel is looking into complaints that agents of different parties were unable to reach counting centres."No rallies celebrating wins of candidates following the announcement of results will be allowed anywhere in the state today," special observer Subrata Gupta told reporters.The contest in West Bengal is considered a bipolar fight between the ruling Trinamool Congress and the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). The TMC under chief minister Mamata Banerjee has been in power in West Bengal for 15 years.The Election Commission of the India (ECI) has started the counting of the votes across all counting centres and the early trends show a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) surge in the state after 15 years. The BJP has already crossed majority mark of 148 seats as per early trends being streamed on TV channels."We are looking into the issue of agents unable to reach their centres. It will be resolved soon," he said.BJP's rise in BengalThe BJP has not won assembly elections in West Bengal so far. Yet, it achieved a remarkable milestone in 2019 Lok Sabha elections by winning 18 of the 42 parliamentary seats of Bengal, a sharp increase from 2 seats it had won in 2014.The BJP began contesting assembly elections in West Bengal as early as 1882. But the saffron party has never been in power in Bengal, where the political landscape, until very recently, has been dominated by the Left, the Congress, and the TMC.No rallies celebrating wins of candidates following the announcement of results will be allowed anywhere in the state today.The BJP has not won assembly elections in West Bengal so far, yet it achieved a remarkable milestone in 2019 Lok Sabha elections.In the last ten years, however, the BJP has experienced significant growth in West Bengal and emerged as the primary opposition to the Trinamool Congress(TMC) by increasing its vote share and winning substantial seats in the 2014 and 2019 Lok Sabha elections. The saffron party won 77 seats in the 2021 assembly elections and became the state's principal opposition party.(With PTI inputs)About the AuthorGulam JeelaniGulam Jeelani is Political Desk Editor at LiveMint with over 16 years of experience covering national and international politics. Based in New Delhi, Jeelani delivers impactful political narratives through breaking stories, in-depth interviews, and analytical pieces at LiveMint since February 2024. The expertise in video production fuels his current responsibilities, which include curating content and conducting video interviews for an expanding digital audience. Jeelani also travels during elections and key political events and has covered assembly elections in key states apart from national elections. He has previously worked with The Pioneer, Network18, India Today, News9Plus and Hindustan Times. Jeelani’s tenure at LiveMint and previous experience at print and digital newsrooms have honed his skills in creating compelling text and video stories, explainers, and analysis that resonate with a diverse viewership. Before moving to New Delhi in 2015, Jeelani was based in Uttar Pradesh, where he worked for five years as a reporter. In 2018, Jeelani was one of the two Indian journalists selected for the Alfred Friendly Fellowship in the US. There, he attended training workshops on reporting and data journalism, and he was attached to the Minneapolis Star Tribune in Minnesota, where he worked as a reporter. Jeelani is a Bachelor's in Chemistry and
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