A crisis of confidence is brewing inside China, where the government is turning believers in the Chinese dream into skeptics willing to flee the country.

Li Yuan, who writes about technology, business and politics across Asia for The Times, explains why that crisis is now showing up at the United States’ southern border.

Guest: Li Yuan, who writes the New New World column for The New York Times.

Background reading: 

• gap-china-immigration.html">Why more Chinese are risking danger in southern border crossings to the United States.
• More than 24,000 Chinese citizens have beenmigrants-us-border.html"> apprehended making the crossing from Mexico in the past year. That is more than in the preceding 10 years combined.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.