The number of Chinese migrants entering the US at the southern border has reached a record high — sparking national security concerns over possible spies.

Customs and Border Protection officials apprehended 24,048 Chinese citizens at the border with Mexico over the 2023 fiscal year ending in September — more than 12 times the 1,970 arrests in the previous fiscal year.

It is also a more than 7,000% increase from 2021, when just 323 Chinese nationals crossed the border during strict pandemic travel bans and lockdowns.

The trend further highlights how migrants worldwide are aware of the disastrous controls at the US border — while also increasing fears of possible Chinese spies sneaking in while hiding with regular migrants.

“Clearly that border is a big opportunity,” Rebecca Grant, a national security analyst at IRIS Independent Research, recently told Newsweek.

“Some of those people want to come here and have a better way of life, but I think some of those Chinese [nationals] quite possibly are here to spy and report back at a minimum,” she warned.

In fact, Grant said she is “99% certain that at least a little bit of this is [the] Chinese military infiltrating for reasons harmful to our national security.

“Is it one person, is it a hundred, is it a thousand — we don’t know, but the fact that we have to ask this question is outrageous,” she told the outlet.

Rep. Mark Green (R-Tenn.), the chair of the House Homeland Security Committee, sounded the alarm on the wave of Chinese migrants entering the United States in June — claiming that a majority are military-age men with known ties to the Chinese Communist Party and People’s Liberation Army.

In response, a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson said the department uses biometric and biographical information on those encountered at the border “to identify potential terrorists or criminals and prevent their release into the US,” according to Newsweek.

The spokesperson also stressed that “anyone who poses a national security or public safety threat is detained and not released into the United States.”

But Grant said she still has concerns.

“We know that China is using everything that they have, every bit of espionage, to spy on our military and our high technology,” she told Newsweek last month.

But Grant said she still has concerns.

“And we know China’s government is not our friend, so this dramatic upswing, I think it could definitely present a potential national security risk.”

Those familiar with the new Chinese migrants, however, say they are trying to flee an oppressive Communist regime that has become even more restrictive since the global pandemic.

“This wave of emigration reflects despair toward China,” said Cai Xia, editor-in-chief of online commentary site Yibao and a former professor at Central Party School of the Chinese Communist Party in Beijing who now lives in the US.

“They’ve lost hope for the future of the country.”

They see the US as a “beacon on the hill where people seek refuge from oppression,” according to Renata Castro, an immigration attorney who founded USA 4 ALL.

“The movement of Chinese individuals through the border is consistent with the situation on the ground in China — less financial opportunity, and most importantly, a growing oppression by the Chinese government,” she told Arizona Family.

The United Nations predicts China will lose 310,000 people through emigration this year, as it becomes increasingly popular on social media sites.