As if reading lines from a play, Harper chimed in again. "Before Russia forfeits her ports in the Pacific, with rich deposits of gold, oil and gas, all vital for her entry into the exploding Asia-Pacific economy, her president and his parliament may out of desperation declare war on China. That would make for an impossible situation for the United States to choose sides."

"There is also another cataclysm in the making," said the President. "The gradual takeover of eastern Russia is only the tip of the iceberg. The Chinese think in the long term. Besides the impoverished peasants being rounded up and loaded aboard ships, a great many migrants are by no means poor. Many have the financial means to buy property and launch businesses in whichever country they settle. Given enough time this can lead to enormous changes in political and economic influence, particularly if their culture and loyalty remain tied to the mother country."

"If the tide of Chinese migration goes unchecked," said Laird, "there is no predicting the enormous upheaval the world will experience in the next hundred years."

"It sounds to me like you're implying the People's Republic of China is engaged in a Machiavellian scheme to take over the world," said Sandecker.

Monroe nodded. "They're in it up to their necks. China's mass of humanity is growing by twenty-one million people a year. Their population of one-point-two billion represents twenty-two percent of the world's total people. Yet their land area is only seven percent. Starvation is a fact of life over there. Laws enacted to allow couples only one child to slow the birthrate are a drop in the bucket. Poverty breeds children despite threats of prison. China's leaders see illegal immigration as a simple and inexpensive solution to their population problem. By literally licensing criminal syndicates that specialize in smuggling, they capitalize on both ends of the spectrum. The profits can be nearly as high as trafficking in drugs, and they decrease the numbers of those who drain their economy."

Gunn looked across the table at the INS commissioners. "It was always my impression that organized-crime syndicates directed the smuggling operations."

Monroe nodded toward Harper. "I'll let Peter reply, since he is our expert on Asian organized crime and transnational criminal groups."

"There are two sides to the smuggling," explained Harper. "One is operated by an alliance of criminal groups that also deals in drugs, extortion, prostitution and international car theft. They account for nearly thirty percent of aliens smuggled into Europe and the Western Hemisphere. The second is legitimate business fronts that engage in the traffic from behind the cloak of respectability, licensed and supported by their governments. This part of the activity accounts for seventy percent of all aliens run across world borders.

"Although many illegal Chinese immigrants come hi by air, the great mass cross into foreign countries by sea. Air requires passports and heavy bribery. The use of ships to smuggle aliens has become more widespread. The overhead costs are lower, many more bodies can be transported in one operation, the logistics are simpler and the profits are higher."