第33章 China’s New Emigrants: New Trend, Old Problems(2)

On top of all these factors sits a growing resentment towards the rich. Combine this sentiment with a maze of hazily defined legal and financial regulations, and many believe you have something close to the core engine driving the trend: the need of the wealthy to secure their capital. According to an online survey conducted by sina.com, 50.4 percent of respondents agree that the major driving force behind the emigration of the rich is an attempt to secure their wealth.

In contrast to their counterparts in developed countries, China’s rich have often ob-tained their wealth through illegitimate means, commonly known as the “original sin.” As China increases its efforts to fight corruption, fears among the rich that they may lose their property heighten, and such a fear is not unfounded.

Since Forbes magazine launched its China Rich List in 1999, it is estimated that more than 80 millionaires on the list have since come under investigation for illegal activities. One of the most salient examples in recent years is Huang Guangyu, founder of China’s largest home appliance retailer Gome who ranked No.2 on Forbes’ 2008 rich list in the Chinese mainland. Huang was arrested in the same year and was later convicted of various economic offenses, including fraud and bribery. He was later sentenced to 14 years in jail, and fined 600 million yuan (US88.2m) with personal property worth 200 million yuan (US29.4m) confiscated.

Mr. Yang, a successful real estate developer from a prosperous coastal city, told our reporter that he has been considering emigrating to Canada since he was “fined” 20 million yuan (US2.96m) earlier this year for allegedly bribing the city’s former mayor who is now under investigation for corruption. Yang said that “giving money” to local officials to do business was “unavoidable.” “Wealth may come hard in China, but it can be lost very easily,” he added.

The rationale holds particularly true for corrupt officials; a key group within the re-cent wave of emigration, who are both rich and more motivated to emigrate. In recent years, the problem of emigration among corrupt officials has become so common that a new phrase, “naked officials” was coined to describe them. The phrase refers to officials whose close family members have emigrated to other countries (often developed countries). After relocating their wealth (usually through illegal means), these officials usually disappear to join their families on a visiting trip to a foreign country. The problem is so serious that the central government had to issue a particular decree in this July to request officials to periodically report the professions and locations of their families.

Given the nature and the scale of the emigration, many warn that the new wave will result in serious problems. According to Fan Gang, a renowned economist, the total capital flight in 2000 reached US48 billion. Official data in 2004 indicate that corrupt officials have escaped with a minimum of US50 billion. In 2009, 1,000 Chinese investors emigrated to Canada, taking a total of 2.35 billion yuan (US480m) out of the country.

“As these new elite emigrants are mainly between the ages of 30 to 55, China risks losing its socioeconomic foundations,” said emigration expert Zhang Yuehui. To some extent, the flight of the moneyed elite not only intensifies the resentment towards the rich, but shakes the confidence of ordinary Chinese. Ironically, in the same online survey made by sina.com while three fourths of the respondents criticized emigration for its apparently negative impact, a similar number (74.5 percent) said that they would consider emigration if they could afford it.

Currently, there seems no easy solution to stop the wave. Like China’s many other social problems, the solution lies in reexamining the country’s social structure. Widespread corruption, an ill-defined legal system, and a huge gap between the rich and the poor, are issues which may take decades to solve.

November 2010