The United States is the most popular destination for Chinese emigrants, with
The United States is the most popular destination for Chinese emigrants, with rich Chinese praising its education and healthcare systems. Last year, nearly 68,000 Chinese-born people became legal permanent residents of the U.S., seven percent of the total and second only to those born in Mexico. Canada and Australia are also popular.
It is a bothersome trend for China’s communist leaders who’ve pinned the legitimacy of one-party rule on delivering rapid economic growth and a rising standard of living. They’ve succeeded in lifting tens of millions of ordinary Chinese out of poverty while also creating a new class of super rich. Yet affluence alone seems a poor bargain to those with the means to live elsewhere.
Despite more economic freedom, the communist government has kept its tight grip on many other aspects of daily life. China’s leaders punish, sometimes harshly, public dissent and any perceived challenges to their power, and censor what can be read online and in print. Authoritarian rule, meanwhile, has proved ineffective in addressing long standing problems of pollution, contaminated food and a creaking health care system.
“In China, nothing belongs to you. Like buying a house. You buy it but it will belong to the country 70 years later,” said Su, lamenting the government’s land leasing system.
“But abroad, if you buy a house, it belongs to you forever,” he said. “Both businessmen and government officials are like this. They worry about the security of their assets.”
The main reasons people want to move abroad, he said, are their children’s education and for better healthcare. Some want to leave because they got their money illegally, such as corrupt government officials and businesspeople, while others are inspired by friends who have already emigrated to the U.S.
America is and will always be the greatest country in the world!