Introduction:

this paper examines the interconnection between informal trade, migration, and geopolitical dispute in Mexico within the framework of the strategic confrontation between China and the United States. Using the case of Plaza Izazaga, located in the center of Mexico City, it analyzes how specific urban spaces condense local effects of global processes. However, Izazaga is not an isolated case. It is argued that its state intervention should be read within a broader national pattern that articulates four analytical margins: the industrial relocation of Chinese companies to Mexico, the imposition of tariffs on Asian textile products, reinforced surveillance over commercial spaces with transnational links, and the control of migration, its transit through Mexico, and border areas. Objective: to demonstrate that these actions are part of a state response that combines migration containment, trade policy, and territorial control. Methodology: it combines press review and the analysis of official discourses on trade, migration, and bilateral relations. Conclusions: the temporal coincidence between surveillance of Asian trade and the tightening of migration controls shows that both fronts function as complementary mechanisms. The Mexican state manages flows of goods and people through selective interventions that redistribute the political cost of the China-United States confrontation onto peripheral actors.

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