Chinese News Review carried a commentary that was originally published by The Beijing News, about the increase in the wave of emigration of China’s rich and powerful merchants. According the article, 70 percent of China’s rich and powerful people have emigrated or are considering emigrating overseas. As a result, China has become the country having the largest number of people emigrating overseas. As to the reason for their leaving China, the article cited two causes: lack of security and a desire to improve life satisfaction.
According to the article, when those emigrants leave China, they also take their wealth with them. It was estimated that between 1997 and 2010 over 17 trillion yuan (US$2.73 trillion) left China. The number has grown even larger since 2010. The article stated that the domestic inflation that has occurred in recent years has had a negative impact on ordinary Chinese people’s wealth. As more and more of China’s rich and powerful merchants choose to leave, it will be more and more difficult to increase domestic demand.
Toward the end, the article raised a question of what can be done to keep people from leaving China. Based on the 2011 China Private Wealth Report published by China Merchants Bank (CMB) and Bain & Company, 27 percent of Chinese merchants having personal assets over 100 million yuan (USD$16 million) have already emigrated while 47 percent are considering emigration.
Source: China News Review, November 25, 2012
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