💾 Archived View for gmi.noulin.net › mobileNews › 2198.gmi captured on 2023-01-29 at 20:04:24. Gemini links have been rewritten to link to archived content

View Raw

More Information

⬅️ Previous capture (2023-01-29)

➡️ Next capture (2024-05-10)

-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Wealthy Chinese flock to the West

2010-07-28 09:49:37

By Chris Hogg BBC Shanghai Correspondent

Porsche cars parked in Shanghai China's wealthy say it is easy to find enough

cash to move to the West

Growing numbers of rich Chinese are applying for permanent residency in Western

countries under programmes that allow investors with a high net worth to "buy"

citizenship.

The number of Chinese investors granted permanent residency in Canada has

doubled in two years.

Ottawa has now halted all applications to its federal immigrant investor

programme while it consults on plans to double the funds needed to obtain a

visa.

Applicants are still allowed to apply to a scheme run by the province of

Quebec, however,

And at seminars run by visa consultancy firms in China, advisers are

encouraging people to apply for the scheme before Quebec also doubles its

minimum requirements to match the federal government's proposals.

Cash and experience

Visa consultant Vincent Chen The average age is 40 to 45, says visa consultant

Vincent Chen

On a rainy Saturday afternoon, in a conference room at a five-star Shanghai

hotel, more than 30 potential "investor applicants" arrive to hear how they

might be able to exchange their cash for a foreign passport.

Many are in their 30s. There are several young couples. Most are professionals.

Few are dressed smartly. They appear to be a pretty average cross-section of

Shanghai's moneyed middle class.

They are shown a video that the visa company has made to promote Canada, and

the country's visa application service.

"You don't have to worry about integrating," the video's commentary declares.

"You don't even need to speak English."

Then the advisers go through the detail.

The Quebec scheme requires applicants to show they have a net worth of

C$800,000 (US$776,000; 502,000) and they must invest up to C$400,000.

They also need to show they have had two years' experience in management.

Different requirements

That's considerably cheaper, they point out, than the UK, which requires

investors to invest 1m ($1.5m) for five years.

Continue reading the main story

Start Quote

People hate you [here] if you have money, and the rich bully the poor

End Quote David Lu Telecommunications manager

There are pros and cons of each of the countries' schemes.

Canada's applications currently take about two-and-a-half years, but the

financial requirements are the lowest in the world.

The United States requires applicants to invest up to $1m ( 646,000) in a

business that creates at least 10 new jobs. Applications take up to

one-and-a-half years.

The UK's application process is the quickest. It can be completed in just three

months, according to the visa consultants at the seminar, and there is no

interview.

But it is also the most costly.

"Usually, the applicants are business owners or senior managers," explains

Vincent Chen, senior consultant for the Visa Consulting Group.

"The average age is 40 to 45, but it's getting younger."

Easily achievable

Canada has not changed its "immigrant investor" programme requirements since

1991.

Woman walks past Cartier shop in Shanghai Some just want the passport before

they move back to China

"Back then, C$800,000 was a huge amount," Mr Chen says.

"But now, with the increases in property prices in cities like Shanghai, people

don't think it's that hard to achieve.

"That's why you've seen the numbers granted permanent residency have doubled."

Other factors are also at work here.

Increasingly, those who come to the seminars have friends who have already

emigrated.

Reasons to move

David Lu, 38, a manager in a telecommunications company, has come to the

seminar to find out more about how to apply to move to Canada.

Continue reading the main story

Start Quote

China is losing the talent it really needs

End Quote Dr Wang Huiyao Centre for China and Globalisation

At the end of the session he starts filling in the forms eagerly.

He has positive reasons to move. Some of his relatives already live in Canada.

And during holidays there he has enjoyed the lower pollution levels there.

Also, he says, the Canadians are "a lot more relaxed" than the Chinese.

There are other reasons though why he wants to leave China.

"People hate you [here] if you have money, and the rich bully the poor," he

says.

"Another issue for me is health care," he adds.

"I don't think anyone interested in moving abroad would worry about the costs.

We want their better quality medical care."

Brain drain

Fabio Xu, 30, runs a paint company in Shanghai.

He says he wants to move to the US "because of the better medical care there,

and better educational opportunities for my child".

"In China, all my money goes on my mortgage, food, clothing and travel," he

says, "but in the States there's generally more freedom. I would be able to

develop myself more creatively and get more out of life."

Some Chinese academics worry that China is losing its brightest and most able

citizens, as well as huge amounts of money.

Last year 1,823 investors were granted citizenship in Canada under the

immigrant investor programme.

Even if they had only invested the minimum amount required, that would mean

almost US$700m had been taken out of the country.

"China is losing the talent it really needs," says Dr Wang Huiyao, the director

general of the Centre for China and Globalisation.

"As China tries to develop its economy and change it from 'made in China' to

'created in China', it needs these people to build the country."

In touch with China

Dr Wang believes many people want a foreign passport because it is so hard to

travel freely around the world on Chinese documents.

Indeed, one woman at the seminar is anxious to know how quickly she could get

her Canadian passport, so she could return home to China.

For her it appears the motivation is not to get a new home abroad, but to

obtain a passport that might make life more convenient.

A Western diplomat in Shanghai offers another explanation for the increase in

these kinds of visa applications.

The internet, he says, means you can live abroad, but never leave China.

"You can wake up in the morning and browse the People's Daily online over

breakfast. You can trade your stocks on the Shanghai exchange with the click of

a mouse," he says.

"You can chat all day to relatives for free on Skype, or run your business

remotely."

His point is that emigration is no longer necessarily the emotional wrench that

it once was for people.

The need to assimilate in their adopted country for practical reasons is not as

great as it once was - which in itself could yet pose its own challenges for

Western societies.