China’s wealthy elite seek free-wheeling lifestyle in the West

As A Chinese millionaire property developer, he builds skyscrapers in Beijing and is one of the people powering China’s economy on its path to becoming the biggest in the world.

Yet the businessman, who asked to identified only by his surname, Su, shares something with many newly rich in China: he wants to leave. He wants to move somewhere he can speak freely, have a second child and protect his growing assets.

China’s wealthy are increasingly investing abroad to get a foreign passport, to make international business and travel easier but also to give them a way out. It’s a worrying trend for China’s communist leaders, who have pinned the legitimacy of one-party rule on delivering rapid economic growth and a rising standard of living.

The booming economy has lifted tens of millions of ordinary Chinese out of poverty while creating a new class of super-rich. But those with the means to live elsewhere are increasingly seeking to escape an authoritarian rule that punishes dissent but struggles with pollution, contaminated food and a creaking healthcare 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 Mr Su of the land leasing system. “But abroad, if you buy a house, it belongs to you forever.”

Leo Liu, of the Beijing emigration consultancy Goldlink, reported an increasing trend of rich Chinese wanting to emigrate, particularly to Canada or the United States. The main reasons are for their children’s education and better healthcare, though some may have earned their wealth corruptly. They seek foreign residency or passports, but still do business in China. “They might have sent their wife and children abroad. And some of them just love life in a foreign country, the western style,” Mr Liu said.

They also leave behind a cavernous gap between rich and poor. China’s uneven jump to capitalism has created dozens of billionaires, but it barely ranks in the top 100 of countries by income per person.

Getting a foreign passport is like “taking out an insurance policy”, said Rupert Hoogewerf, who compiles the Hurun Rich List of China’s richest. “If there is political unrest or suddenly things change in China – because it’s a big country, something could go wrong – they already have a passport to go overseas.”

Among the 20,000 Chinese with at least 100 million yuan (£9.87m) in individual investment assets, 27 per cent have already emigrated and 47 per cent are considering it, according to a recent bank survey.

Mr Su, the property developer, intends to stay in China building residential high-rises and office buildings for another ten years. But his wife is already in the US, expecting their second child. Under China’s one-child policy to control population growth, couples having more than one child face heavy fines.

“The living conditions abroad are better, like food safety and education,” said the millionaire as he dined in the VIP room of a Beijing restaurant. Lowering his voice, he said many rich worry about the authoritarian government: “This is a very sensitive topic. Everyone knows this. It’s freer and more just abroad.”