Climbers (part one): A way out of China
Economist Podcasts
The Economist
4.3 • 5K Ratings
🗓️ 8 October 2024
⏱️ 44 minutes
🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Necoclà is a tiny town on Colombia’s Caribbean coast. Beach bars blast party music and sell brightly-coloured cocktails. But Necoclà is not just a tourist destination. It is also a stopping point for migrants heading to the United States.
The fastest-growing group among them are Chinese. They are on a journey they call zouxian, or walking the line. Disillusioned with the Chinese dream, they have decided to chase the American version. But first they face a journey that is fraught with peril.
Necoclà is the place migrants stock up on supplies and cash, before putting their trust in smugglers who will guide them across the Darién Gap, a treacherous stretch of jungle separating Colombia and Panama.
In the first episode of this four-part series, Alice Su, The Economist’s senior China correspondent, travels to Necoclà to meet Chinese migrants on their zouxian journey, and asks what drove them to leave China and take such risks.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | In a world of seismic change, will your business shape the future or be shaped by it? |
| 0:07.0 | How will we capture the imagination of tomorrow's consumers? |
| 0:12.0 | Overcome operational constraints to focus on future growth |
| 0:17.0 | and unlock economic and social prosperity through environmental responsibility. |
| 0:22.8 | With EY's full spectrum of services across sectors, we're all in to shape the future with confidence. |
| 0:29.1 | Start your transformation journey at EY.com slash transformation. This summer This summer, I went to report a China story in a place I'd never expected to find one, the deserts, jungles, and borders of the Americas. Isn't that good of Chinese? |
| 0:55.0 | I'm going, Marguerite. |
| 0:56.0 | Okay. |
| 0:57.0 | I wanted to meet Chinese people on a journey that's come to be known as |
| 1:12.9 | ZĹŤshin, or walking the line. |
| 1:16.3 | It's a striking new trend that's emerged in the last two years. |
| 1:20.5 | Chinese migrants fly across the world to South America, then make their way on boats and buses |
| 1:26.2 | and on foot across some of the wildest stretches of the planet |
| 1:29.4 | to reach one place. |
| 1:33.3 | The United States of America. |
| 1:38.3 | The infamous Darien Gap on the border between Colombia and Panama is the only land route between South and North America. |
| 1:47.0 | Those attempting to cross it, risk, robbery and death. |
| 1:53.0 | This route is taken by many desperate migrants from countries torn apart by war, crime, and poverty. |
| 2:10.6 | But in the last few years, more and more Chinese people have been taking this route to reach the U.S. too. |
| 2:14.6 | Last year, there were more than 37,000. That's nearly 10 times more than the year before, and 50 times more than the year |
| 2:20.1 | before that. |
| 2:22.0 | And that surprised me. |
... |
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