Opinion | Three reasons China is losing its allure for the foreign business community
- Amid the rising costs of raising a family and political factors that are eroding positive perceptions, Covid-19 restrictions have piled on the difficulties
- Yet, an exodus of foreigners would only remove some of the strongest forces that help to keep a worsening situation stable
China talks big about its internationalisation and openness. It has the foreign capital, brands, technology and trade. What it lacks, crucially, is a significant foreign community.
New census numbers show the foreign population has increased in the past decade, but not by much. The 845,697 of us foreign residents still make up less than 0.1 per cent of the total population, with foreign communities in “international hubs” such as Shanghai and Beijing making up less than 1 per cent of their populations.
By comparison, the foreign populations of Seoul (2.8 per cent), Tokyo (4.2 per cent), New York (23 per cent) and London (37 per cent) show how far China’s internationalisation still has to go. Underscoring the problem further is that the foreign populations in Shanghai and Beijing have dropped 22 per cent and 41 per cent respectively over the decade.
Estimates by the European, American and Canadian chambers of commerce suggest that foreign nationals within their respective business communities have dropped by 30-40 per cent throughout China in the past five years.
China is simply losing its allure in the eyes of its foreign business community, a trend driven by three main factors – economic, political and administrative.
Raising a family in China’s cities has become increasingly expensive, and for international families these costs are about to go up dramatically.
