Thread by @yingyuchen9

In Nov, I went to a town close to the #Colombia-##Panama border to cover Latin American migration across the #DarienGap to the US. Surprisingly, I discovered dozens of #Chinese citizens lining up for boats headed for the jungle crossing themselves. (1/10)
twreporter.org/a/run-philosop…

A growing number of Chinese citizens are fleeing #China in search of a safer, brighter future, which they term “#runology” (潤學). Trekking through the Darien Gap to the US is perhaps the most perilous escape route they can take. (2/10)

The migrants enter South America via Ecuador, which allows Chinese nationals to enter without visas, before moving through Colombia and six Central American countries to reach the US. And the number of Chinese nationals making this trek has surged in recent months. (3/10)

485 Chinese citizens crossed from Ecuador to Colombia irregularly in Nov, according to Colombia’s immigration office. All of them continued on to #Necoclí, the town where they begin their journeys. 192 crossed in Oct, after just 351 in all of Jan-Sept. (4/10)

In late Nov, a deadly fire in #Xinjiang ignited rare protests condemning #China’s #ZeroCovid policies. But Chinese disillusionment toward their government, and their future prospects, was already swelling in the months before the mass demonstrations. (5/10)

Chinese migrants have flooded Necocli, buying tents and rain boots to prepare for the trek. Some told me they were fed up with China’s strict regimens of lockdowns and nucleic acid testing. Others said they left to seek more freedom. (6/10)

One morning, I met more than 20 Chinese citizens, including a 10-year-old child, at a pier in Necoclí. Some wore life jackets, waiting for a ferry to the Darien jungle. On another morning, 19 Chinese waited at the pier, including 5 women and 3 children. (7/10)

In Necoclí, I met Zhou Jun, a 52-year-old Chinese dissident, who had protested for human rights in rural Tibet and Yunnan. He was traveling with his 8-month-old dog, Niu Niu. He has now reached the U.S.-Mexico border, but his dog died near the exit of the Darien jungle. (8/10)

One 35-year-old man from Guangzhou brought his wife and three children (3-6 yrs) across the jungle in Oct. He told me their mother was swept away by a river on the fourth day of the Darien Gap crossing. Fortunately, she was rescued by other Latin American migrants. (9/10)

After they succeeded in crossing the Darien Gap, he wrote on Twitter, “The place where everyone wants to go might not be heaven, but the place where everyone risks their lives to escape from must be hell.“ (10/10)

Simplified Chinese version can be found on RFA
rfa.org/mandarin/zhuan…