beyondbrics

Since the start of the latest global financial crisis, Beijing has been having a ball gloating at the plight of the West. But if the American dream has truly been strangled by a noose of debt – as the Chinese government seems to think – then why is emigration still so attractive to so many Chinese?

According to the Blue Book of Overseas Chinese published on Monday in Beijing, since 1978 total emigration from China has exceeded 4.5m. 

What’s more, the report (which is issued by the Overseas Chinese Affairs Office of the State Council, China’s cabinet) says Chinese who have left the motherland are on top of the world overseas: one third of the founders or senior executives in Silicon Valley, the US high technology mecca, are of Chinese origin.

Even more surprising: this is not just a phenomenon of the 1980s or 1990s, when any Chinese with a bit of ambition was headed overseas to study, if not to stay. According to a recent study by Bain & Co, as many as 60 per cent of the Chinese rich (defined as having a net worth of US$ 1.5m or more) have decided to emigrate or are considering doing so – even now, when the rest of the world is flocking to China to get rich.

The Chinese wealthy are thinking about “investment immigration” – which requires them to invest a large sum of money in one of those debt traps that Beijing likes to deride. Bain found that, among those with net worth above $15m, 27 per cent have already completed immigration formalities to jump ship.

Last week Australia said China overtook the UK to become the country’s biggest source of migrants. And a recent Xinhua news agency report said 2m mainlanders had obtained permanent residency in the US.

Maybe the tide will reverse, now that America has been laid low yet again by the profligacy of its citizens. But don’t bet on it.

Related reading:
China and US debt: a sanctimonious drug dealer, beyondbrics
US downgrade unleashes turmoil in Asia, FT
China urges US to ‘live within its means’, FT
China can break free of the dollar trap, FT