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Iran Terror: 100+ Dead, Regional War Fears; Epstein Case Reveals Names: No Direct Accusations; Israel-Hamas Tensions Rise: Senior Hamas Leader Killed; Tokyo Airport Collision: Runway Warning Lights Malfunction; Trump Appeals Ballot Disqualification to Supreme Court; Underground Network Helping Migrants Flee China for U.S. Aired 12-12:45a ET
Aired January 09, 2024 - 00:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
JOHN VAUSE, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: Coming up here on CNN, the U.S. Secretary of State in Israel adds the risk of a second war inches closer as fighting escalates with Hezbollah militants in Lebanon.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JENNIFER HOMENDY, CHAIR U.S. NATIONAL TRANSPORTATION SAFETY BOARD: Thank you, Bob.
(END THE VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: That's Bob the teacher who found the door plug from Alaska Airlines flight in his backyard.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOESEPH, BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Losers are taught to concede when they lose. He's a loser.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE (off-camera): The U.S. President goes after his likely Republican opponent again, warning not only is Donald Trump a loser, but a threat to truth and freedom.
At this hour, the U.S. Secretary of State is in Tel Aviv, the latest stop in shuttle diplomacy to prevent Israel's war with Hamas from escalating beyond Gaza. At the same time, the Israeli assassination of a senior Hezbollah militant, in Lebanon, has dramatically raised the risk of a full-scale war on Israel's northern border. Secretary Blinken will hold talks with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his war cabinet in the coming hours.
Blinken is also expected to push Israel on reducing a soaring Palestinian death toll, now close to 23,000, according to the Hamas- controlled health ministry in Gaza. CNN cannot independently confirm those numbers.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ANOTHY BLINKEN, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: It's clearly not in the interest of anyone. Israel, Lebanon, Hezbollah, for that matter, to see this escalate and to see an actual conflict. And the Israelis have been very clear with us that they want to find a diplomatic way forward.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: Late Monday, Israel's foreign minister claimed responsibility for the assassination of that senior Hezbollah commander, who, according to a Lebanese security source, was killed by an Israeli drone strike in southern Lebanon. Cross-border attacks between Hezbollah and the IDF began shortly after the October 7 attack by Hamas, and can continue to escalate even as Israeli military operations in Gaza continue. This is now day 94 of Israel's military offensive in Gaza, a war with an unprecedented death toll and a level of utter devastation to match.
For the past few weeks, Israeli operations have focused on central Gaza. CNN's Jeremy Diamond traveled there under IDF escort for a first-hand look not just at the destruction, but also what the Israeli military says they've uncovered about the Hamas terror infrastructure. The team reported under Israel Defense Forces' escort at all times as a condition for journalists to join the embed with the IDF. Media outlets must submit footage which was taken in Gaza to the Israeli military for review. CNN did not submit the final report to the IDF and has retained editorial control, but there is a warning. Some of the images you're about to see are disturbing.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): After three months of war, this is a glimpse of central Gaza. Buildings flattened or partially collapsed, others riddled with bullets or scarred by smoke, civilians nowhere to be found. The outskirts of Al-Bureij now under Israeli military control.
DIAMOND: The Israeli military has now been fighting on the ground here in central Gaza over the last two weeks, and you can see all around me the results of that military campaign. Destroyed buildings, smoke still billowing from parts of central Gaza.
DIAMOND (voice-over): As the fighting rages, the Israeli military is also uncovering the scale of Hamas's underground infrastructure, inviting CNN into central Gaza for the first time to show what they are uncovering. Alongside now bulldozed farmlands and inside a nondescript building, the opening to a tunnel system.
UNKNOWN: We are standing in one of the main entrances to the manufacturing terror center.
DIAMOND (voice-over): Which the Israeli military says Hamas used to manufacture and transport weapons. DIAMOND: So this is the entrance to a tunnel that the Israeli military used to build. This is the entrance to the tunnel that the Israeli military found in central Gaza. You can walk through here, and they say that if you follow this tunnel all the way down, you get eventually to what is a weapons manufacturing facility that Hamas has been using throughout the war.
DIAMOND (voice-over): Inside that facility, Israeli commanders say Hamas built rockets and mortar shells like these, and then filled them with explosive material like fertilizer below ground. The military did not allow reporters underground, saying the chemicals made it too dangerous. But it provided this video, it says, was filmed inside that underground facility.
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Steps away, in a warehouse alongside a residential building, long- range rockets capable of reaching Tel Aviv or Jerusalem.
REAR ADMIRAL DANIEL HAGARI, IDF SPOKESPERSON: What we're seeing is using the embedded civilian industries to build a rocket industry.
DIAMOND: But some would say that you are making this point, that Hamas and civilians are embedded, that it's all happening in the same places, to justify the enormous civilian casualties that we have seen in Gaza so far.
HAGARI: We are focusing on Hamas. We're focusing on a war on Hamas. We're not fighting the people of Gaza.
DIAMOND: When you look at the numbers of thousands of children who have been killed in Gaza, are you doing enough to distinguish between Hamas fighters and civilians?
HAGARI: Every death of every child is a tragedy. We didn't want this war.
DIAMOND (voice-over): More than 9,000 children have been killed so far, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health, like this girl pulled from the rubble in central Gaza. Tens of thousands of civilians who fled the fighting in the north, now at risk here. In Al-Bureij, the Israeli military dropped these warning flyers days ago, urging civilians to flee to nearby Deir al Balah. But the fighting is now raging there too. Jeremy Diamond, CNN, inside Gaza with the Israeli military.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: Joining us this hour from Washington is Cedric Leighton, a retired U.S. Air Force colonel and CNN military analyst. Welcome back. It's good to see you.
CEDRIC LEIGHTON, CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Good to see you too, John. Thanks for having me here.
VAUSE: You bet. Now, with another Israeli assassination on Lebanese territory, this time it's a senior leader from Hezbollah, the Lebanon- based militant group backed by Iran. Now, already heightened concerns about a regional escalation have risen even further. With that in mind, here's U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who's in the region.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BLINKEN: Everywhere I went, I found leaders who were determined to prevent the conflict that we're facing now from spreading, doing everything possible to deter escalation. To prevent a widening of the conflict.
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VAUSE: So Blinken was talking about other regional leaders, not specifically Israeli leaders. It seems everyone from the Pope to the French president has warned of the dangers of a full-scale war between Israel and Hezbollah. So, is there a diplomatic solution here? Does Israel want a diplomatic solution? And if there is no diplomatic solution, can Israel fight two wars at the same time and win?
LEIGHTON: Yeah, that's a really difficult question for the Israelis. And of course, war is really the failure of diplomacy. And that's what Blinken is trying to avoid in this particular case. I think a lot of the Arab countries do want to have some kind of a -- either a ceasefire or a cessation of hostilities. And they're certainly keen on avoiding war, at least a major war in the Middle East, because that can only serve to drag them down.
However, on the Israeli side, one of the things that we've noted in the last few days and really few weeks is the increased volume of attacks between the Israelis and Hezbollah on Israel's northern frontier, the northern border with Lebanon. And that indicates that Israel is, I think, poised to strike at Hezbollah in a more concerted and more meaningful way than we've seen up until this point. The volume of attacks has increased on both sides. And that, of course, tells me that it's going to be -- the possibility, at least, is very high that there is going to be a two-front war for the Israelis. Can they fight that war? They can. They've done it before. But it's going to be really, really difficult.
VAUSE: In terms of the big picture, though, does it make a lot of sense to have a full-on knock-em-down, drag-em-out, fight to the death with Hamas in Gaza, while a much bigger, more threatening, hostile force like Hezbollah is allowed to continue to exist just across the northern border?
LEIGHTON: So that's actually a very good question. So, from a military standpoint, if you put, you know, some of the other concerns aside for a second, it really makes sense for the Israelis to get rid of the big threat, you know, the 150,000 or so Kutuzna (ph) and other rockets that are poised to go against the Israelis. That is certainly a major concern from a security standpoint. The problem that you run into, of course, is one of resources and whether or not the Israelis can actually make that happen. But from a pure military perspective, that actually is a valid
military goal. The key will be for the Israelis to avoid as many civilian casualties as possible, but they don't seem to be doing that in Gaza at the moment.
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VAUSE: Well, with that in mind, here is the latest about the war in Gaza from the IDF.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HAGARI (through translator): While there are still terrorists and weapons in the north, they are no longer functioning within an organized military framework. We are now operating differently in that area, with a different mix of forces to deepen our achievements.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: That took 93 days. So now the focus shifts to central and southern Gaza. Can the Israeli military achieve the same outcomes there, keeping in mind that about 1 in 100 people have been killed since this October 7 offensive began. That's according to Palestinian statistics, which we haven't verified, coming from a mass-controlled Gaza Strip. That's close to 23,000, or 1% of the entire Gaza population.
The thinking has been Israel must lower the operation tempo across all of Gaza by the end of this month, reduce civilian deaths, or risk alienating the United States. So, can Israel achieve those same kind of goals at the same time at a reduced operation tempo?
LEIGHTON: I think it's going to be really difficult for them to do so, John. Certainly, the type of operation that they conducted in the north was based in large measure on the concentration or perceived concentration of Hamas forces in that area. The problem that Israelis are running into in this particular case is that Hamas has basically moved a lot of its operations to the central part and to the southern part. Now, those operations are less effective than they were in the north, and so in that sense, the IDF spokesman is absolutely correct.
They have a better chance of, in essence, mopping things up in the central part and in the south with the resources that they currently have than they did in the north with a similar set of troops. But in this instance, I think that it's going to be very difficult for them to keep Hamas, in essence, tied up in this manner.
VAUSE: So, good to see you, sir. Thank you.
LEIGHTON: You bet, John. Thank you.
VAUSE: Ukraine was targeted by a wave of Russian airstrikes Monday. More than a dozen cruise missiles and eight drones were intercepted and destroyed by Ukrainian air defenses, but officials say at least four people were killed and 38 wounded. In Ukraine's second biggest city, Kharkiv, first responders searched through rubble and debris from destroyed homes and buildings looking for survivors.
Until now, Ukraine's air defense system has been remarkably effective during those Russian attacks. Airstrikes. But now the attacks are growing more advanced, more widespread, and Ukraine is struggling to cope. As CNN's Fred Pleitgen reports from Kyiv.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
FREDERIK PLEITGEN, SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): An interception that probably saved lives on the ground. Ukrainian anti-aircraft guns at work as Russia has drastically escalated its aerial assault. We meet with a mobile air defense unit currently working overtime around Ukraine's capital. It all depends on the weather conditions, a soldier says, if the weather is good, then of course it's much easier to shoot down a drone. At night, especially in fog, it's harder, we react very quickly.
The mobile teams don't only use guns, they also have American-made shoulder-launched surface-to-air missiles taking aim at both Iranian- made Shahed drones and low-flying cruise missiles. The teams move out fast and can set up and fire within minutes.
PLEITGEN: This gun might not look like much, but it is very important for the air defenses, not just here in Kyiv, but across the country. And when they get the call, they have to be ready in minutes to move out.
PLEITGEN (voice over): The Russians are constantly changing tactics, trying to make their attacks more lethal, making air defense like a chess match, the commander tells me. They used to fly in a single trajectory, he says, but now they're zigzagging. A drone can fly, then circle, hover, go down completely, then rise about half a kilometer, then fly sharply down. They are now very maneuverable and must be seen. And destroyed.
Now, another massive drone and missile attack killed and wounded scores in various areas of Ukraine. Russia used some of its deadliest and most advanced ballistic, cruise and hypersonic missiles, Kyiv says. Of the 51 missiles launched, they were able to intercept 18, the Air Force says, because they simply don't have enough high-powered Western surface-to-air batteries to cover the whole country.
There were a lot of ballistic missiles today, the spokesman says. Such missiles may only be shot down by means such as patriot (ph) systems, that's why the results is such. The mobile air defense unit celebrate every missile and drone they manage to hit while understanding the ones they can not take down often cause catastrophic carnage.
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They are trying to hit our energy infrastructure and military infrastructure, the soldier says, but the most painful thing is when they're hitting civilians, houses, kindergartens. This is not in line with the customs of war and not in line with human morality. It is immoral. Fred Pletitgen, CNN, Kiev.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: Maintenance technicians with Alaska Airlines say they have found loose hardware on some of the airlines' Boeing 737 MAX fleet. It was a 737 MAX which saw a terrifying incident Friday when a fuselage door plug blew off mid-flight at an altitude of 16,000 feet. United Airlines says it, too, has found loose door plug bolts on some of its MAX 9 planes. The revelations come after the FAA temporarily grounded certain MAX 9 aircraft until they are inspected. Meantime, a Portland physics teacher who found the missing fuselage door plug is recounting how he discovered it in his backyard.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BOB SAUER, FOUND ALASKA AIRLINES FUSELAGE DOOR PLUG: This is the most exciting thing that's ever happened on the street, as far as I know. I saw in the flashlight light that there was something gleaming back there, which shouldn't have been there. Oh, that's curious. So, I went back to look at it, and it turned out to be the door.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: According to U.S. investigators, that door plug is a crucial piece of evidence in the investigation into what happened during Alaska Airlines' mid-air emergency. CNN's Pete Muntean has details.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
PETE MUNTEAN, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): From inside the damaged airliner to a Portland backyard, a full, violently ripped in an Alaska Airlines flight has a new smoking gun. The National Transportation Safety Board has now recovered the part of the fuselage that ejected without warning only six minutes after Flight 1282 took off Friday. The piece tumbled 16,000 feet, only to be discovered two days later by a schoolteacher named Bob.
HOMEND: I'm excited to announce that we found the door plug. Thank you, Bob.
MUNTEAN (voice-over): Investigators are now matching up the bolts, hinges, and roller bearings of the door plug to the structure of the plane to provide key clues about why it came off. The size of a refrigerator and weighing 63 pounds, the force of the rupture was strong enough to open the cockpit door 26 rows up. The noise of 400- mile-per-hour air audible as pilots radioed in an emergency.
UNKNOWN: Alaska, 1282, we just depressurized, we're declaring emergency.
UNKNOWN: We need you to descend down to 10,000.
MUNTEAN (voice-over): Investigators say the explosion contorted seats, removed headrests, and threw phones from passengers' hands to Portland streets below. Amazingly, nobody on board was seated immediately next to the hull or seriously injured.
UNKNOWN: You heard a big, loud bang. UNKNOWN: I just knew something bad was going on because the masks had come down, and I had never experienced that before.
MUNTEAN (voice-over): The plane, a new Boeing 737 MAX 9. It made its first flight just this past October. And it had been used by Alaska Airlines on only 150 trips. The Federal Aviation Administration has temporarily grounded MAX 9s until Alaska and United Airlines can make emergency inspections.
HOMENDY: We may look at the manufacturer, the design of this aircraft, but we go where the evidence takes us.
MUNTEAN: What is missing from the investigation is audio from the cockpit voice recorder, which was not recovered in time to stop its automatic override. Gone are the recordings of the loud bang heard by passengers.
UNKNOWN: It's high time that we improved the amount of data we got out of these cockpit voice recorders.
MUNTEAN: Investigators have uncovered one more key piece of evidence. They say this Boeing 737 MAX 9 had pressurization problems three times before this incident. A cockpit alarm went off just one day before the incident. Following its own protocols, Alaska Airlines kept the plane from long overwater flights like to Hawaii. So far our investigators say it's not clear if those alarms foreshadowed Friday's in-flight blowout, but right now, they're not ruling anything out. Pete Muntean, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: When we come back, on the campaign trail and on the attack, U.S. President Joe Biden likens Donald Trump and his supporters to confederates who refuse to accept they lost the Civil War.
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VAUSE: Welcome back. Another fiery speech from Joe Biden and another indication that his campaign for a second term in the White House will center on Donald Trump and the threat he poses to democracy. Biden was in South Carolina at a black church Monday where he talked up record low black unemployment, funding for black colleges and universities, and his diverse judicial appointments. But notably, Biden also took aim at Donald Trump and his supporters comparing them to confederates as they lost the civil war.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BIDEN: Once again there is someone in this country trying to turn a loss into a lie. A lie, which if allowed to live, will once again bring terrible damage to this country. But this time the lie is about the 2020 election. And yet, an extreme movement of America, the MAGA Republicans, led by a defeated President, is trying to steal history now. They tried to steal an election. Now they're trying to steal history.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: Joining me now from Los Angeles is Ron Brownstein, CNN senior political analyst and senior editor at The Atlantic. Good to see you.
RON BBROWNSTEIN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Hey, good evening, John.
VAUSE: Okay, so, you know, Biden was, you know, at this black church. It was the scene of a racially motivated massacre back in 2015. And it was there also we found a reminder, not just something or just an indication of the campaign to come, but also a reminder of the challenges the campaign is facing. Listen to this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNKNOWN: If you really care about the lives lost here, then you should honour the lives lost and call for a ceasefire in Palestine.
UNKNOWN: Ceasefire now.
UNKNOWN: Ceasefire.
UNKNOWN: Ceasefire now.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: So the speech was interrupted by these protesters. As you heard, they were demanding, you know, ceasefire in Gaza. A lot of people aren't happy with the way Biden has dealt with Israel's war there with Hamas. And here's how Biden replied.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BIDEN: I understand their passion. And I've been quietly working. I've been quietly working with Israel to reduce significantly and get out from Gaza.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: What this is sort of symbolic of is that compared to 2020, the level of support among certain key groups is certainly not as high now as it was back then, because of the war in Gaza, the economy, the environment, whatever. And while they probably won't vote for Trump, the big concern for Biden, I guess, is what they may not vote at all.
BROWNSTEIN: Yeah, you know, when you said you were going to show a clip of the challenges facing the campaign, I thought you just as easily could have gone to one of the attendees talking about Biden's problems in the black community. There are a lot of elements of the Democratic coalition that are a little bit frayed right now, whether it's young people partially over the war in Israel and also the economy or black voters and Hispanic voters largely over inflation.
And -- but what you saw in that speech was really what Biden hopes will be the antidote to all of that. I mean, the one point on which just about everyone who has leaned in the Democratic direction in recent years agrees is that they view Donald Trump, Donald Trump's vision of America as something fundamentally antithetical to the country that they want to see. And, you know, as we have seen over these last couple of days, again, Biden ultimately will need a significant number of voters who believe that he has not delivered for their interests to still vote for him because they view Trump as a threat to their values and rights and to democracy itself. And this is going to be a central theme and point of contention for the campaign.
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VAUSE: And we saw that sell on Friday with a speech which the president delivered from Valley Forge and not far from where the Continental Army spent the winter of 1777 during the War of Independence. This is one of Biden's best speeches in years. Here's part of it.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BIDEN: Their mission, George Washington declared, was nothing less than a sacred cause. That was the phrase he used, a sacred cause. Freedom, liberty, democracy, American democracy. Today we gather in a new year, some 246 years later, just one day before January 6th, a day forever shared in our memory because it was on that day that we nearly lost America. Lost it all. Today we're here to answer the most important of questions. Is democracy still America's sacred cause?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: You know, Biden has avoided going down this road. He always referred to Trump as the other guy. He didn't refer to him in that speech. But, you know, why go this way now? And how difficult is it for this sort of issue of democracy, freedom, and to put it into practical terms for voters to take hold of?
BROWNSTEIN: Well, you know, it's not a silver bullet. It doesn't erase all other concerns about crime and the border and, above all, inflation. But we saw in 2022 that it was more powerful than many political analysts expected. I mean, because the Republican, the other Republican candidates, and indeed virtually every elected Republican in the country, short of which Liz Cheney and Chris Christie have given Trump a pass on his behavior, it's easy to lose sight of the fact that consistently in polling, including in the polls over just the last week by The Washington Post and CBS, a majority of Americans believe that what Trump did on January 6th and what he did after the election more broadly was a threat to democracy, that he committed crimes, and they are hesitant about, you know, understandably, about re-electing someone to the White House if he is a convicted felon.
You know, Biden, as I said, it's not a get-out-of-jail-free card for Biden. At the moment, more voters say they trust Trump than Biden on many of the key issues the country is facing, particularly the economy and the border. But the doubts about Trump's commitment to democracy and the broader sense that he is a threat to the rights that Americans have come to expect is the reason why 93 million separate individuals, by the best estimates of Democratic analysts, have come out to vote against him and his party in the last three elections.
And I think that concern is probably the best hope of Biden of winning a second term, given the doubts in the electorate about both his performance and whether he's up to the job for another four years.
VAUSE: These are such incredibly serious issues. So much is to say, it's, you know, very big ideas and all the rest of it. So, with that in mind, here's how Trump has responded.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, U.S. REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Crooked Joe is staging his pathetic, fear-mongering campaign event in Pennsylvania today. Did you see him? He was stuttering through the whole thing. He's going, I've got a - he's a threat to democracy. He's a threat to da-da-democracy.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: Mocking, humiliation, belittling, it's all been incredibly effective for Trump in the past. Will it continue to be? I guess that's the question here.
BROWNSTEIN: Well, you know, look, it is certainly effective with his core supporters. And he is in a commanding position in the Republican primary. In part, I would argue, because, you know, even his main rivals have run at him no more than half-heartedly. You know, Nikki Haley and Ron DeSantis have only gone so far and no further. But in terms of the voters he needs to win a general election, that kind of argument is probably counterproductive.
I mean, the voters who will probably decide the election are voters who are disappointed in Biden's performance and kind of revolted in many ways by Donald Trump. And uncertain whether they can him to be president again, even though they, by and large, believe that the economy was better when he was in office.
So, you know, the more -- one of the hopes of Democrats is that as Trump returns to the spotlight more, as he becomes presumably the presumptive Republican nominee in the next several months, you know, absent some big surprise probably from Haley in New Hampshire, South Carolina, the voters will be reminded of why they didn't vote for him in 2020, even though they were largely satisfied with the economy at that point.
You know, again, Trump's answer to every political challenge when he was president, after his presidency, now, has always been to rev up his base. That probably is not enough to win.
[00:30:18]
His path to win is converting the voters who were dubious about Biden's performance but are uncertain about giving power back to Trump. And that kind of language really just makes the problem harder.
JOHN VAUSE, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: Yes. Ron, thank you. Ron Brownstein for us there in Los Angeles. Good to see you, Ron. Thank you.
BROWNSTEIN: Thanks, John.
VAUSE: We'll take a short break. When we come back, by any means necessary. Why a growing number of Chinese are risking a dangerous journey to try and reach the United States.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VAUSE: Despite weeks of talks, there's been little progress in the U.S. Congress on a deal over border security. Many expected wording of a compromise bill to be released this week. But with deep differences remaining between the two parties, they're now at an impasse.
And that means funding for Ukraine and Israel also remains in limbo, because Republicans insist that foreign aid be paired with major changes aimed at securing the Southern U.S. border.
Now more than ever, many Chinese citizens are seeking political asylum in the United States, having spent a decade under the strongman rule of President Xi Jinping. And they're using some unconventional means to do it, sometimes paying smugglers to help them navigate a dangerous path through South and Central America to reach the U.S. border.
CNN's David Culver spoke with migrants fleeing the world's second biggest economy, who say everything there is not what it seems.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DAVID CULVER, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): As soon as we pull up, they rush towards us. My mic, not even on, but that doesn't stop this crowd of Chinese migrants from venting to producer Yeong Sheon (ph).
They're angry, having to wait in the cold for Border Patrol.
This is just one of three makeshift border camps we stopped at in Eastern San Diego County. Alongside migrants from Latin America, at each camp we meet dozens from China. The numbers reflect the surge.
From 2013 to 2022, CBP recorded fewer than 16,000 Chinese migrants illegally crossing the U.S. Southern border. This past year alone? More than 31,000. That's roughly double the prior ten years combined.
But unlike those fleeing countries in turmoil like Venezuela, Cuba, or Haiti, these migrants are leaving the world's second largest economy.
CULVER: What was the reason you left China?
CULVER (voice-over): Their answers very.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: My family is poor.
CULVER (voice-over): Most cite deepening financial hardships, despite the Chinese government's narrative of a steadily rebounding economy.
[00:35:07]
CULVER: How did you get here? How did you get to Southern California?
CULVER (voice-over): Their trek North primarily starts in one Latin American country, where Chinese do not need visas to enter.
CULVER: To Ecuador? How many -- how many of you here came through Ecuador?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (SPEAKING IN FOREIGN LANGUAGE)
(CROWD OF PEOPLE ALMOST UNANIMOUSLY RAISE HANDS)
CULVER (voice-over): To really understand their journey, and how it differs from other migrants, you need to see it in action.
We touched down in Ecuador's capital, Quito, and standing outside of international arrivals, we notice this man.
CULVER: Chinese?
CULVER (voice-over): A hired driver, scrolling through photos and messages in Chinese. A few moments later, passengers began stepping out. They tell us they're from China, planning to go to the U.S. But most ask we not show their faces.
The driver approaches this group, making sure he's got the right passengers.
CULVER: He's got a booking for them.
CULVER (voice-over): We uncovered an assortment of travel packages offered specifically to Chinese migrants. You can pay smugglers who promise to ease some of the planning stress. From nine to $12,000, flights, hotels, transportation booked for you.
For 20 or more thousand, it's a premium service. Getting you to the Mexico side of the U.S. border, skipping some of the more treacherous crossings.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)
CULVER (voice-over): We drive through Ecuador's capital city with Long Twan-We (ph). He shows us private homes and Airbnbs where Chinese migrants stay when they arrive.
Long's (ph) lived here in Quito for five years and runs a travel agency. He has witnessed the recent surge in Chinese migrants. And with it, a spike in businesses catering to them, like this Chinese-run hotel.
The owner estimates there are as many as 100 hotels in Quito that, like hers, host Chinese migrants headed to the U.S.
CULVER: And take a look at this. They've got, essentially, a "how to" guide to go from here, and to continue North. And they tell you here how many days you should be preparing, vaccinations you might need, other documents you should carry with you.
They even mention bringing $300 and hiding that amount of money, because of presumably being robbed at some point and needing cash as a backup.
CULVER (voice-over): It's advice Zheng Shiqing could have used a few days earlier.
CULVER: Your parents still think you're in China? They have no idea you left?
ZHENG SHIQING, MIGRANT: Yes.
CULVER (voice-over): We meet the 23-year-old back in Quito, after he was robbed at gunpoint in Colombia.
"I left China because I was not able to save any money. It was really difficult to support myself," he tells me. He says some employers in China refused to pay him even after working. "Even if they say the Chinese economy is strong, it is all about the upper class," he says. "I wish I was never born. Living feels so exhausting."
After saving up enough to restart his trek, Zheng heads to this Quito bus station, where ticket sellers hold up signs like this one in Chinese. It reads, "To Umcan (ph), Colombian border."
More than a dozen Chinese migrants board the bus North. We go with them for the four-hour plus ride. On board, Zheng and the others plan their next moves.
CULVER: California, California. That's the ultimate goal.
CULVER (voice-over): Zheng plans to stay here in Umcan (ph) for two nights, and then hire a cab to take him over the border.
CULVER: As a lot of the Chinese migrants are able to pay their way in taxis to get to the international bridge crossing from Ecuador to Colombia, we've noticed a lot of folks, migrants from Latin American countries, like these over here, not having the money to do that. So they walk.
In the cold rain, we meet Angel and Isabel from Venezuela.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)
CULVER: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE) They say it's really expensive to try to cross, so they have to walk.
CULVER (voice-over): Umcan (ph) residents tell me they see hundreds, if not thousands, of Chinese migrants passing through each week. And because they're often carrying more cash, they are now prime targets for corrupt police and cartels.
But like Zheng, they remain determined.
As we return home, he updates us on his trek. Over two weeks, Zheng travels through five Central American countries. At times, messaging Chinese-speaking smugglers, who remotely coordinate with local cartels to get him and others on vans, buses, boats, and on flights.
It cuts his travel time down to about half that of most Latino migrants, but it's costly.
By the time he reaches Northern Mexico, he has spent more than $10,000, with one more border to go.
A camera we set up facing the U.S. Southern border captures weeks of crossings. Thousands entering the U.S. through this gap in the wall. Group after group, day and night. You can hear these migrants shouting in Chinese.
[00:40:13]
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)
GRAPHIC: Goodbye, my motherland!
CULVER (voice-over): They end up where we started, San Diego County, burning fires through the night to keep warm, and during the day, expecting Border Patrol to pick them up.
Just before New Year's, Zheng messages as that he, too, has crossed into the U.S. and is waiting to be processed for asylum.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: America.
CULVER (voice-over): Joining the thousands who have crossed before him, and the many more to come.
David Culver, CNN, Los Angeles.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: Still to come. Just hours after lift-off, first came an anomaly. Then came mission failure. Well, for the most part. More than 50 years after NASA's last manned trip to the Moon, the first ever lunar shot from the private sector comes up short. We'll bring you more details in a moment.
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VAUSE: An historic mission to the Moon is set to go down as an historic failure. The company behind Peregrine, the first U.S. lunar lander to launch in five decades, says there was a critical fuel loss just hours into the flight.
The spacecraft had trouble turning towards the Sun to recharge its batteries. That means Peregrine may not land on the Moon at all, and it will be a major loss for NASA, as well, which was hoping to get data for future Moon missions and travel back to the Moon on the cheap.
The Michigan Wolverines are celebrating their first college football championship since 1997, beating the Washington Huskies 34 to 13 Monday night to claim the title.
Michigan became the first college football program to reach 1,000 all- time wins earlier this season. Congratulations to them.
I'm John Vause, back at the top of the hour with more CNN NEWSROOM. But first, WORLD SPORT -- more WORLD SPORT starts after the break. See you back here in 17 minutes.
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