How China supercharged birth tourism and scammed American citizenship for up to 1.5 million babies

“Birth tourism” — where pregnant women have their child on America soil to become citizens — has been happening for decades.But Chinese elites have “weaponized” the practice, says author Peter Schweizer, raising a generation of legal citizens who have no loyalty to the US.

In this excerpt from his new book, “The Invisible Coup: How American Elites and Foreign Powers Use Immigration as a Weapon,” he explains how.As we sang “Auld Lang Syne” in the early morning of Jan.1, 2025, the first American newborn of the year arrived to much fanfare and celebration.But this time, the baby was the progeny of Chinese citizens, and the mother had intentionally traveled to give birth on American soil, so that the child would automatically be granted US citizenship, a practice known as birth tourism.

When such children turn 21, they can also apply for resident status for both of their parents.This baby was born in the US territory of Saipan in the Pacific.More than 70% of the newborns in Saipan are Chinese birth tourist parents who utilize the territory’s 45-day visa-free visitation rules and the “Covenant of the Northern Mariana Islands” to guarantee that their children will have American citizenship.That little child’s parents are two of many who are taking advantage of America’s birthright citizenship policies, based on an interpretation of the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution.

How many is anyone’s guess.Since the US government does not directly track birth tourism, we must rely on estimates.In 2012, one nonprofit calculated that about 36,000 foreign-born women gave birth in the United States and then left the country.But the number is likely to be far, far higher.

Chinese officials estimate that the number is a staggering 50,000 of their own citizens per year.Scholars who have studied the subject in depth, like Australian-based professor Salvator Babones, put the figure even higher, perhaps twice that.“With up to 100,000 Chinese babi...