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The Chinese call thisLangshwe“Runology” or “Runology” is the study of escaping China and fleeing with one’s wealth. The word is a play on the English verb “run,” which is similar to the Chinese “run.”Run“Gakugaku” means “to make profits.” This “gakugaku” implies that moving abroad is no easy task. Figuring out where to go, how to get there, and figuring out how to smuggle capital out of China can be an arcane science.
The term became popular in China in 2022, when Beijing’s strict COVID-19 lockdowns prompted people to dream of living abroad. But this year, “flight” has turned into a concerted sprint to leave. A record number of Chinese billionaires and billionaires are expected to emigrate from their home country this year, following record numbers last year, according to a report from Henley & Partners, a UK-based investment relocation firm.
The exodus puts China at the top of the list of countries where the “rich” are fleeing in search of a better life and prospects. According to Henley & Partners, an estimated 15,200 Chinese billionaires are expected to emigrate this year, more than the 13,800 who actually left China last year.
“This billionaire migration is the canary in the coal mine, heralding a major shift in the global landscape and seismic forces of wealth and power,” says Dominic Borek of Henley.
China’s loss is reflected in the net inflow of wealthy people to other countries, with the United Arab Emirates, the United States, Singapore and Canada at the top of the list. Japan, where Chinese billionaire Jack Ma spent several months in 2022 after being ousted by Beijing, has also seen an influx of billionaires.
For China’s strongman leader, Xi Jinping, the trend represents a commentary on his rule: The “shared prosperity” he has been advocating since 2021 includes a promise that high-income earners need to “give more back to society” to improve the lives of those left behind by China’s rapid growth spree of the past four decades.
In some ways, this determination to distribute the benefits of China’s rise more equally is laudable. But the discordant and often arbitrary way in which it has been pursued – cracking down on the real estate sector, humiliating private entrepreneurs, and government exhortations against “greed” – has only increased the desire to emigrate.
“Unfortunately, President Xi Jinping is an incompetent leader when it comes to the economy,” said Junhua Zhang of the Europe-Asia Institute, a Brussels think tank. “For the wealthy, if they can’t generate more wealth at home, the only solution is to move.”
But once they decide to leave China, the wealthy face a series of trade-offs, starting with where to go. In a conflict-torn world, preferred destinations should be safe, so geographically distant places like New Zealand or Australia are sometimes preferred.
Other regions have rolled out the red carpet on the regulatory front. The UAE and Portugal both have “golden visa” systems that fast-track immigration for wealthy investors, which is especially attractive to the Chinese. The US and Canada also have their own attractions, including good schools and universities, large Chinese communities and civil liberties. Meanwhile, Japan is close to China, has an Asian culture and good social order.
But perhaps the most difficult aspect of runology is getting your money out: To prevent capital flight, Beijing limits the amount of foreign currency its citizens can take out of the country to $50,000 a year, a tiny sum compared with the cost of starting a new high life abroad.
Many would-be migrants have no choice but to turn to “underground banks” to get their wealth overseas. These shadowy financial institutions use a variety of methods to move funds across borders without being detected by law enforcement.
One method, known as a “mirror transfer,” involves depositing a sum of money in one underground bank in China and then withdrawing the same amount from a mutual underground bank in another country, without the money actually moving and leaving almost no trace for investigators to follow.
In an April statement, the Department of Homeland Security said Chinese money laundering rings, which are a preferred funding channel for criminal gangs and drug cartels, are also used by ordinary Chinese citizens looking to access cash overseas.
But even after overcoming the obstacles of migration, life abroad brings with it a whole new and unknown set of challenges for well-off Chinese. Adjusting to new foods, weather and politics can be difficult. But it’s the social problems that are more difficult to solve.
“If you’re a social person, someone who can’t live without social activities, the Nordic countries are definitely not for you,” one Chinese influencer said online. “There’s a certain amount of social anxiety in the Nordic countries. Most people stay within a set group of a few friends, so it’s not going to be much fun.”
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