In the din of the H1B controversy, what gets left unreported is the security risk posed by PRC nationals entering the US both illegally and legally.
India has emerged as the greatest obstacle to the efforts of the CCP leadership to establish the PRC as the dominant power in the Indo-Pacific. As a consequence, inspired commentary designed to denigrate the world’s most populous country and its people has multiplied. Misuse of the internet to promote disinformation and misinformation was, and remains, ubiquitous. Such abuse has extended even to tourist destinations within India. A friend had been reading social media posts about Goa while at home in the UK countryside, and was getting worried about having booked a holiday stay there. Several of the posts described Goa as among the worst destinations for a holiday, and were they to be believed, all that the holidaymaker would experience would be rude people, indifferent food, squalid surroundings and littered beaches. A non-refundable vacation trip had already been booked for her husband and herself, so a decision was taken to make the trip and see whether the trolling was accurate. Within a few hours of their arrival, it became clear that the reports were false. They loved the ambience of Goa, the local inhabitants were warm and friendly, and as for the seashore location they were booked into, or the food, it was perfect. Despite Elon Musk taking over what was formerly named Twitter and making changes in the platform, large-sized fragments of its past biases stubbornly remain intact.
Several voices opposed to the illiberal “liberal” establishment and its implanted bias towards the Sino-Wahhabi lobby are continuing to have their voices muffled by algo warriors of the lobby that continue to remain embedded within that very consequential platform. What has changed is the fact that since Musk took over the platform, incoming US President Donald Trump was no longer the target of motivated and manufactured comments designed to portray him in the most unflattering of colours, while India continues to remain a target.
Despite the best (or worst) efforts of the Sino-Wahhabi lobby, Donald Trump is taking over as the 47th President of the United States. The effort of the lobby is now to simultaneously demonise India to his supporters while demonising Trump through online disinformation in India. The latest example of such activity is the manufactured controversy that has erupted about the US H1B visa program, just when even in the Biden administration, it has become difficult to gloss over the fact that the recruitment through H1B visas of nationals of the PRC pose a security risk to the US. Such access permits such nationals to purloin technology as well as data for transfer to the PRC, usually through pen drives unobtrusively included in either hand or check-in baggage of PRC nationals or in a few cases others returning to China from the US. Casting a shadow over recruitment of Indian nationals through the H1B visa program would have as a side effect a rise in the (presently falling) proportion of PRC nationals coming and working in the US through the H1B visa program. An impression is being sought to be created within the US that the program has a huge impact on job opportunities for US citizens. What is left unsaid is the fact that the total number of visas secured through the entire H1B program is less than 90,000, a minuscule number in an expanding US job market. Not to mention the fact that H1B visas are allocated only after a determination is made that there are no qualified US nationals for the specified jobs. Hence the allegation that through such visas, Indian nationals are taking away jobs from US citizens is groundless. Of course, in the din of the controversy, what gets left unreported is the security risk posed by PRC nationals entering the US both illegally and legally. What Trump had promised in his 2024 Presidential campaign was to clamp down on illegal immigration, and nothing in the entirely legal H1B visa route makes him back away from this pledge.
As Elon Musk and Vivek Rawaswamy have said, the H1B visa system needs overhauling. Salaries need to be brought to the same level as that paid to US citizens rather than lower, as is often the case now. Security concerns ought to be of prime importance in the giving of visas, rather than be taken casually as had been the case until recently. Whether Indian Americans or Indian nationals, they are by far the highest earning (and therefore taxpaying) ethnic group in the US, and if the US is to fight off competition from the authoritarian superpower close on its heels, talent needs to be recognized and factored into job decisions rather than ignored. Merit is colour blind. A young white lad grew into early adulthood dirt poor and with a single parent. Through sheer merit, he became a gifted writer. That individual, J.D. Vance, is on January 20 being sworn in as the Vice-President of the US. Promotion of merit wins, acceptance of mediocrity loses in the battle for superpower status and primacy.