Another politically motivated article that doesn't state all the facts. China's net emigration bottom out on 2012 due to the Great Depression and the resilient of the Chinese economy at that time. Due to COVID, 2020 and 2021 have abnormal low number of net emigration. Unless, the Western economy went into deep recession, the net emigration out of China would still be in high number for a few years.
Beside, if most of these professionals are willing to take a pay cut for emigration, then it is the best for them to leave. As most of them are probably burned out and have no ambition anymore, it is the best that their job vacancy would be opened for those young graduates that desperately wanted good paying jobs.
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In the 1980s and 1990s, when China was poor, its best and brightest sought to study and work — and stay — in the West. Emigration, on net, peaked in 1992 with more than 870,000 people leaving the country, according to the
. That number fell to a low of roughly 125,000 in 2012, as China emerged from poverty to become a tech power and the world’s second-biggest economy.
The Chinese government worked hard to keep them, rolling out incentives to
scientists and other skilled people. In 2016, more than 80 percent of Chinese who studied abroad returned home, according to the
, up from about a quarter two decades earlier.
The trend has reversed. In 2022, despite passport and travel restrictions, more than 310,000 Chinese, on net, emigrated, according to the U.N. data. With three months to go this year, the number has reached the same level as the whole of 2022.
Ms. Zhang, 27, a computer programmer, felt the hustle culture of Silicon Valley was too similar to China’s grueling work environment. After putting in long hours at a top tech company in Shenzhen for five years, she was done with that. She also sought a country where women were treated more equally. This year, she moved to Norway. After paying taxes for three years and passing the language exam, she will get permanent residency.
Ms. Zhang said she didn’t mind that she was making about $20,000 less than in Shenzhen, and paying higher taxes and living expenses. She can finish her day at 4 p.m. and enjoy life outside work. She doesn’t worry that she will be considered too old for employment when she
, a form of discrimination that many Chinese experience. She doesn’t live in constant fear that the government will roll out a policy like “zero Covid” that will turn her life on its head.
Most of the tech professionals I talked to took a pay cut when they emigrated. “I feel like I’m paying for liberty,” said Mr. Zhou, a U.S.-educated software engineer who quit his job at an autonomous-driving start-up in Beijing. He now works at an automobile company in Western Europe. “It’s worth it,” he said.