These wealthy refugees fear the pollution and corruption in China and are losing faith in the current government (a dictatorship run by the Chinese Communist Party) to set things right before the country collapses into another period of civil strife and economic collapse.Their destination of choice is, apparently, the United States.
Which, if one reads the the right-wing press about how our own rich are supposedly fleeing, is rather interesting. The right-wing bleaters cry that the rich are fleeing the U.S. because of taxation. The Chinese rich apparently are OK with paying taxes if those taxes buy clean air, clean water and a reasonable amount of domestic security.
There are plenty of other countries around the world where it is possible to purchase citizenship.
But they are coming here.
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I think the Chinese are not coming here because "clean air, clean water and a reasonable amount of domestic security." They are preparing to come here, and are coming here because they have seen (many first-hand) the slaughter that occurs when there is unrest in China. They fear being scapegoats when the AMAZING Chinese economic boom finally busts out.
We may joke about torches and pitchforks or hanging the rich from the lamp-posts. They lived through the Cultural Revolution, and before that their civil wars and "Great Leap Forward." Even if they lost all their money and power by coming to America or Britain, at least they are reasonably sure they will not lose their lives.
They are the Chinese version of preppers.
Actually, they're the Chinese version of the Hong Kong wealthy who have created a new skyline for Vancouver Canada. Before China took over Hong Kong, Hong Kong's wealthy quietly used their Empire citizenship to move their wealth to Canada. Now most of them have Canadian citizenship, though they spend most of their time in Hong Kong overseeing their commercial empire. But if China goes sour, they still have their condo towers in Vancouver and their Canadian passports for getting there.
Does it surprise me that China's 1% are similarly looking for a fallback position? Nope. Not at all. And note that while you can't buy citizenship in the US, the "Investor" visa might as well be. Come up with $1M, create a new business or buy a "troubled business" with 10 or more US citizen employees, and you're in. It was originally created to try to lure some of that Hong Kong money to the US (didn't work, a Canadian passport is more valuable than a US passport), but is still on the books.
What BadTux said.
Except that in Canada, having $1M (Cdn) to "invest" got you on the fast track to citizenship too, under somethign called the "Investor Immigrant Program".
It helped your case if you invested your money and lived outside of the Vancouver area (which is where all the money and people are) for a year.
So there were dozens of Chinese restaurants in towns outside the Vancouver area that changed hands, about once a year, for about a million dollars, so the former owners could move to Vancouver and get on with what they wanted to do.
The Investor Immigrant Program was recently shut down - the Conservative government is really struggling with the immigration issue, because it has worked out well for them politically.
Because many immigrants are socially conservative and are pragmatic about treating political parties as vote-taking, goodie-giving machines, the Party has benefited - but they also struggle with their elderly racist base who don't like immigrants (even though their parents were immigrants, sometimes they themselves are immigrants, but if you talk to them there are "good ones and bad ones") yet can be relied on to come out and vote, if they are placated (usually with law n' order talk).
But something just as craven will be worked out.
Too much money at stake.
So that's why they're coming to the US? Racist Canadians? Huh. The good thing about racist Americans is that they all live in Bugfuckistan while the immigrants are mostly coming to west coast cities that they don't care about. And yes, the Investor Immigrant Program *is* a pathway to citizenship, as with the Canadian one, 5 years of continuous residence under the program and you can become a US citizen.
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