Day: November 12, 2022

A growing share of wealthy and middle class Chinese are making plans to leave the country, citing the government’s stringent zero-COVID policies and a perceived return to the planned economy of the Mao era under leader Xi Jinping, according to online data and Chinese nationals with experience of the phenomenon.

The WeChat Index, which publishes search statistics from the social media giant, on Thursday showed around 38.3 million searches using the keyword “emigration.” 

While the #emigration hashtag wasn’t blocked on Weibo on Thursday, the number of views was in the tens of thousands, with much of the content focusing on the disadvantages of living overseas, suggesting some kind of intervention by the ruling Communist Party’s “public opinion management” system. 

At their peak, search queries for the keyword “emigration” hit 70 million several times during the Shanghai lockdown between March and May, and 130 million immediately afterwards. The same keyword also showed peaks on Toutiao Index, Google Trends and 360 Trends between April and the end of June 2022. 

Two highly educated Chinese citizens told RFA in recent interviews that they and their friends are either leaving or planning to leave soon, as the grueling zero-COVID program of rolling lockdowns, compulsory mass testing and tracking via the Health Code smart phone app have taken their toll on people’s mental and physical health, not to mention their livelihoods and the economy as a whole.

Gao, a Shanghai-based financial executive who asked for his full name to be withheld for fear of reprisals, said that lately he has been binge-watching YouTube videos in Mandarin from consultants promising to offer Chinese nationals a better life — in the Pacific nation of Vanuatu, in Moldova, even war-torn Ukraine — anywhere, in short, but China.

The phenomenon even has its own code name using a Chinese character playing on the English word “run.”

“I strongly and strongly encourage everyone to run!” gushes one immigration consultant on a YouTube video viewed by RFA. 

“Today I will be sharing how easy it is to emigrate to the United States,” the YouTuber promises. “It is very likely that after watching this video, you will start re-examining your life and making plans.”

‘Lost all hope for the future’

Gao, who had absorbed a number of such videos before speaking to RFA, said he has been looking for somewhere else to live for some time now.

“The current situation isn’t looking very good,” he told RFA. “Since the 20th party congress [last month], everyone has lost all hope for the future.”

“Everyone has looked at their ideas, their values, their policies, the stringency of the zero-COVID policy, the return to a planned economy and heavy-handed suppression [of dissent], and come to their own conclusions,” Gao said, adding that he and his high-earning friends all share the same view.

“The fact that we are facing economic collapse — there’s nothing left worth staying on for,” he said. “Everyone is taking a risk-averse approach to planning their future, because the risks associated with staying are getting bigger and bigger.”

Chinese social activist He Peirong, who has nearly 40,000 followers on Twitter, said she had just left for Japan.

“I had been preparing to leave the country since July, but I didn’t let anyone on WeChat know that I was leaving,” she told RFA. “I spent more than 10,000 yuan on home renovations, and I left halfway through.”

“China has set off an immigration wave,” she said. “A lot of people are now heading off to live in Japan, Europe and the United States. Where people go depends on their economic situation.”

She said she had also visited an emigre Chinese arts and cultural community in Chiang Mai, Thailand.

“We would eat, drink and perform together every day; everyone was very happy,” she said. “There are a lot of cultural types who have congregated there … and who aren’t going back.”

Before she left, He Peirong had been a vocal critic of the ruling Chinese Communist Party, and was instrumental in aiding the daring escape from house arrest and subsequent defection of blind Shandong activist Chen Guangcheng.

She later took supplies to Wuhan to support citizen journalists reporting from the front line of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.

She said she decided to leave China after being barred from the railway ticketing system owing to a poor “social credit” rating.

“In the fall of 2018, I was blacklisted by the ministry of railways, so I filed a lawsuit against them,” she told RFA.

Long waiting lists

There are currently very long waiting lists for people hoping to emigrate to Europe, the United States, Canada or Australia, while price tags for investment visas in those countries are also fairly high.

Southeast Asian nations are seen as too risky, due to their close ties with China, and willingness to deport Chinese nationals wanted by the authorities back home.

Rights groups say China currently engages in illegal, transnational policing operations across five continents, targeting overseas Chinese for harassment, threats against their families back home and “persuasion” techniques to get them to go back, according to a recent report. 

Hong Kong, itself in the grip of a citywide national security crackdown and mass emigration wave following the 2019 protest movement, is also no longer a safe springboard to overseas residency, Gao said.

Gao is now looking at Ukraine, where he already has a friend.

“Ukraine is war-torn right now, but that won’t go on for long … there is all kinds of hope and vitality in the future of this country,” he said. “I have a friend living in the westernmost part of the country, where there’s no fighting, and they are living quite peacefully.”

“People have told me that you can apply for a business visa in Ukraine, set up a small company, and then … go and settle down there before pursuing other options,” Gao said.

Failing that, Gao is also looking at neighboring Moldova, where visa processing times are fairly short. He said he is keen to leave China as soon as possible.

Immigration consultancies

The exodus of the Chinese middle class has given rise to a plethora of immigration consultancies.

An employee who answered the phone at one such consultancy in Shanghai said they are advising clients to try for a visa to Vanuatu while they are waiting for visas to more popular destinations like Canada, which currently has an immigration backlog of two to three years.

“There are long waits for Canada right now, so it could take two to three years,” the employee said. “I would recommend Vanuatu to you, because it’s quicker to process everything.”

“If you need to leave quickly, you can get a green card in just one week, and a passport in a month,” they said. “Vanuatu supports dual nationality, so you can retain your Chinese citizenship if you want to.”

“You could then use the Vanuatu passport as a stepping stone, which will be an easier and more convenient way to go to countries like Australia and New Zealand, which is harder for us here in China,” the employee said.

They cited the ongoing zero-COVID policies as a key factor motivating their company’s clients.

‘Middle class anxiety’

Chinese political scientist Chen Daoyin, who recently emigrated overseas, said he is not alone, and that the exodus is concentrated in the middle classes who had tasted the fruits of 40 years of a market-oriented economic policy, and who are worried about where China is headed following the 20th party congress.

Faced with unbearable situations caused by zero-COVID, they are choosing to uproot everything and leave, he said. 

“I call this phenomenon middle-class anxiety,” Chen told RFA. “Most of the middle class grew up under the market-oriented economic reforms and opening up [to the rest of the world], and experienced all of the changes and freedoms it brought.”

“Since the start of the pandemic, and especially since the 20th party congress, the future direction of China has become much clearer, and this anxiety has given rise to the ‘run’ phenomenon,” he said.

“The middle class is voting on the present situation in China with their feet; they don’t trust Xi Jinping, so this is a vote of no confidence, and a vote for freedom over the current situation,” Chen said.

And there are indications that the authorities may be about to clamp down on immigration consultants who help people leave the country.

A WeChat account using the handle @SunnyImmigrantVisaPermanentResidentPassportProject, which is marked as being located in the eastern province of Jiangsu, posted on Thursday: “Have just received orders from the company overnight to delete all immigration-related content from WeChat Moments and withdraw from all WeChat groups relating to emigration.”

The account said some of the company’s employees had been hauled in for questioning by the state security police, using the euphemism “drinking tea.” 

“Some of my colleagues have been invited to drink tea,” said the post. RFA was unable to verify the content of the post independently. “[The authorities] may be about to undergo rectification. Maybe there won’t be any immigration consultancies left in future to help anyone.”

Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie.

HANOI, Nov 12 (NNN-VNA) – The State Bank of Vietnam (SBV), called on commercial banks to provide sufficient loans to fuel traders, amid volatile global oil prices and disrupted supply, it was reported yesterday.

A number of fuel stations in Vietnam’s big cities have been reportedly shut down or on limited sales in recent weeks, with traders citing numerous difficulties in securing stock and suffering heavy financial losses, since early this year.

The commercial banks were asked to adopt financial support policies, to best support fuel traders, in accordance with existing regulations, the report said, citing a recent document by the SBV.

The SBV also requested banks, to fully meet fuel trading firms’ demand for loans, to purchase petroleum products, to ensure supplies for the domestic market, the document said.– NNN-VNA

 

Source: NAM News Network

JAKARTA, Nov 12 (NNN-ANTARA) – The number of Indonesia’s provinces increased from 34 to 37, as three new autonomous regions were inaugurated yesterday.

“Today (yesterday), I, as home affairs minister, on behalf of the president of the Republic of Indonesia, inaugurate the provinces of South Papua, Central Papua, and Highland Papua,” said Home Affairs Minister, Muhammad Tito Karnavian, at the inauguration ceremony in Jakarta.

The three regions were previously part of Papua province. Now the three regions, together with Papua and West Papua, are the five provinces occupying the Indonesian half of the New Guinea island.

The legislation for establishing the three new provinces was ratified by parliament, at the end of June.

At the inauguration, Karnavian appointed three interim officials, to govern the provinces until elections are held in 2024.– NNN-ANTARA

 

Source: NAM News Network

U.S. President Joe Biden offered rare praise for Cambodia’s authoritarian premier as he encouraged diplomatic support for ending the war in Ukraine and bringing peace to Myanmar at a summit with Southeast Asian leaders on Saturday.

Although the control of U.S. Congress lies in the balance back in Washington, Biden signaled commitment to the region by attending an annual gathering of leaders of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.

His appearance in Phnom Penh, a day after attending a climate change conference in Egypt, serves as a prelude to the first face-to-face meeting of his presidency with Chinese leader Xi Jinping, which will take place in Bali, Indonesia, on Monday. The U.S. and China vie for influence in Southeast Asia.

Although Cambodia has faced some stiff criticism from the U.S. over its suppression of democracy, Prime Minister Hun Sen welcomed the president saying the meeting showed the Biden administration’s commitment to “ASEAN centrality and a rule-based regional architecture to maintain peace and stability in the region.”

“We support the engagement of the U.S in our ASEAN community building process as truly important, especially in the context of bolstering ASEAN’s recovery from the COVID-19 crisis, promoting regional resilience as well as addressing many pressing issues such as climate change, food and energy security,” he said, adding that ASEAN planned to extend relations with the U.S. to a comprehensive strategic partnership. That will put the U.S. on level-pegging with China, which already has that status.

Cambodia is hosting the summit as it holds the rotating chairmanship of the 10-nation ASEAN bloc. Indonesia takes the chair after this week’s summits.

Biden stressed the importance of the partnership, saying the U.S administration would build on the past year’s U.S. $250 million in new initiatives with ASEAN by requesting a further $850 million for the next 12 months. He said it would pay for more Southeast Asian projects such as an integrated electric vehicle ecosystem and clean energy infrastructure to reduce carbon emissions.

“Together we will tackle the biggest issues of our time from climate to health security, defend against significant threats to rule-based order, and to threats to the rule of law, and to build an Indo-Pacific that’s free and open, stable and prosperous, resilient and secure,” Biden said.

The linchpin of the U.S. push in Southeast Asia is the Indo-Pacific Economic Partnership (IPEF) that is intended to intensify America’s economic engagement in the region. ASEAN is America’s fourth-largest trading partner.

Whether the members of ASEAN will be impressed by what the U.S. has to offer is another matter.

“I don’t think ASEAN states are much sold on IPEF. It contains parts that are anathema to them and yet isn’t really a trade deal, and does little to actually further regional economic integration. It’s a fairly weak package overall,” said Joshua Kurlantzick, senior fellow for Southeast Asia at the Council on Foreign Relations.

“China is already by far the region’s dominant economy and trade partner and the U.S. isn’t going to materially change that. Southeast Asian states are stuck with China as their dominant economic partner.

“For some Southeast Asian states [there is] a desire to build closer strategic ties with the U.S, but the U.S. is not going to now replace China as the region’s dominant trade partner.”

In a comment that would have raised some eyebrows among critics of the Cambodian government’s human rights record, Biden on Saturday thanked Hun Sen – for critical remarks about the war in Ukraine and for co-sponsoring U.N resolutions.

Earlier this week, Hun Sen met with the Ukrainian foreign minister. He’s also expressed concern about recent attacks on Ukrainian cities and civilian casualties.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has skipped the ASEAN summit and sent Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in his place.

However, Biden did call for transparency over Chinese military activities at Ream Naval base on Cambodia’s southern coast, and urged Hun Sen “to reopen civic and political space ahead of 2023 elections,” and release Theary Seng, an imprisoned U.S.-Cambodian lawyer and activist.

The other conflict that Biden mentioned in his public comments to ASEAN leaders was Myanmar, whose military leader was not invited to the summit. Biden said he looked forward to the return of democracy there.

Human rights groups have assailed the Southeast Asian bloc for its failure to put more pressure on Myanmar to end the civil war that followed a February 2021 military coup against an elected government.

On Friday, ASEAN leaders took a marginally tougher stand, calling for measurable progress toward the goals of its Five Point Consensus that include restoring democracy and delivering humanitarian aid.

On Saturday Antonio Guterres voiced his support for the plan, saying “the systematic violation of human rights are absolutely unacceptable and causing enormous suffering to the Myanmarese people.”

Cambodia, which has jailed opposition politicians and environmentalists, was not spared criticism by the U.N. secretary general.

“My appeal in a country like Cambodia is for the public space to be open and for human rights defenders and climate activists to be protected,” he said.

Biden attends the East Asia Summit on Sunday, also hosted by Cambodia, where he plans once again to discuss ways to end the Russian invasion of Ukraine and limit the global impact of the war in terms of fuel and grain shortages that are fueling global inflation.

The U.S. president is also holding talks with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol expected to focus on North Korea’s recent barrage of missiles fired into the seas off the Korean peninsula — including one that passed over Japan. North Korea is also reported to be planning a nuclear test.

Biden then heads to the Indonesian island of Bali to attend the Group of 20 leaders’ summit.

Ahead of the G20, on Monday Biden will meet with China’s leader Xi. It will be their first face-to-face talks since Biden took office nearly two years ago.

Biden will tell Xi that if North Korea continues on its current path, it will lead to an enhanced U.S. military presence in the region, National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan told reporters on their way to Cambodia.

The meeting between the two leaders comes as Xi begins a third term in office after consolidating his domination of the ruling Chinese Communist Party at a National Congress despite mounting domestic problems inside China.

For his part, Biden is entering this Asian summit season after his Democrat party’s slim grip on the U.S. Congress slipped after midterm elections.

Analysts say the meeting with Xi is likely to focus on keeping open lines of communication and finding areas to cooperate, as well addressing contentious issues such as both countries’ war games in the region, Taiwan and North Korea.

 

Copyright © 1998-2016, RFA. Used with the permission of Radio Free Asia, 2025 M St. NW, Suite 300, Washington DC 20036

PHNOM PENH, CAMBODIA — U.S. President Joe Biden is in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, this weekend for meetings with leaders of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations as the region faces a violent crisis in Myanmar, ongoing threats from North Korea, and the intensifying rivalry between Beijing and Washington.

In opening remarks of the US-ASEAN summit Saturday, Biden reaffirmed U.S. commitment to “ASEAN Centrality” – the principle that regional engagements and processes are driven by the 10-country bloc instead of great power rivalry.

“ASEAN is the heart of my administration’s Indo-Pacific strategy,” Biden said. “And we continue to strengthen our commitment to work in lockstep with an empowered, unified ASEAN.”

The South China Sea – where several ASEAN member states have competing claims with each other and with Beijing – and the political crisis in Myanmar will be points of discussion, Biden said.

“I’ll also discuss Russia’s brutal war against Ukraine and our efforts to address the war’s global impact, including in Southeast Asia,” he said.

Biden – Hun Sen

Biden appeared to misspeak as he thanked “the prime minister of Colombia” for his leadership in ASEAN, referring to Cambodia’s authoritarian leader Hun Sen. At the start of the summit, the president held a bilateral meeting with the region’s longest-ruling leader who has been in office since 1985.

Activists have urged Biden to hold Hun Sen accountable for the country’s democratic decline.

Biden pressed Hun Sen to reopen civic and political space ahead of the 2023 elections and called for the release of activists detained on politically motivated charges, including U.S.-Cambodian dual citizen Seng Theary, according to a readout of the bilateral meeting provided by the White House.

With Phnom Penh firmly in Beijing’s embrace, however, there may not be much that Biden can do.

“Whenever there’s pressure from the Western country, especially from the U.S., China will be at the back of the Cambodian government providing support,” said Bunna Vann president of The Thinker Cambodia think tank. “When the U.S. has put a sanction to the Cambodian government, China will provide the economic support to the Cambodian government.”

During his meeting with Hun Sen earlier this week, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang pledged $27 million in development aid for Cambodia.

The U.S. is also concerned that Cambodia is secretly allowing Chinese warships to dock at its Ream Naval Base in the Gulf of Thailand.

“The President raised concerns regarding the situation at Ream Naval Base and underscored the importance of full transparency about activities by the PRC military at Ream Naval Base,” the White House said in its statement.

Earlier this year, Beijing provided funds to revamp the base, heightening fears among some ASEAN members concerned about Chinese expansionist ambitions in the South China Sea.

Biden ended his first day in Cambodia at a gala dinner with summit leaders. He will continue meetings in the East Asia Summit on Sunday before heading to Bali, Indonesia, for the G-20 meeting of the world’s 20 largest economies.

The East Asia Summit is a grouping of ASEAN and its dialogue partners Australia, China, India, Japan, New Zealand, South Korea, Russia, and the United States.

ASEAN warns Myanmar

ASEAN leaders Friday issued a warning to Myanmar’s junta to make measurable progress on the five-point consensus peace plan adopted in April 2021 or continue being barred from the bloc’s meetings.

In October, amid escalating violence in Myanmar since the military coup against the elected government led by Aung San Suu Kyi, ASEAN agreed to exclude the head of its military junta, Gen. Min Aung Hlaing, from this month’s gathering of the 10-nation bloc. The country would only be permitted to send “non-political representatives.”

According to the United Nations, more than 13 million people in Myanmar are going hungry and 1.3 million have been displaced with the military continuing its operations with disproportionate force, including bombings, the burning of homes and killing of civilians.

Indonesia’s President Joko Widodo, who will assume ASEAN’s chair next year, said his country is “deeply disappointed the situation in Myanmar is worsening.”

“We must not allow the situation in Myanmar to define ASEAN,” he said. He called for expanding the participation of only non-political representatives beyond the bloc’s biannual summits and foreign ministers’ meeting.

The Myanmar crisis is the “biggest sensitive issue” facing ASEAN and cannot be detached from global geopolitical tensions, including Russia’s war in Ukraine, Dinna Prapto Raharja, founder of the Jakarta-based think tank Synergy Policies told VOA.

Naypyidaw has further aligned itself with Russia following Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, while Moscow has provided Myanmar’s junta with weapons and backed it diplomatically. At the U.N. Security Council, Russia and China have shielded Myanmar from action from the world body.

In October, Tom Andrews, the U.N. special rapporteur on human rights in Myanmar, said the same Russian weapons being used in Ukraine were also killing people in Myanmar. He called for an international coalition to target Myanmar’s military junta with sanctions and an arms embargo.

North Korea

In Phnom Penh, Biden will meet with his Japanese and South Korean counterparts to discuss broader security issues in the Indo-Pacific region, specifically threats posed by North Korea’s missile and nuclear programs, National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan told reporters on board Air Force One on the way to Phnom Penh.

North Korea recently deployed military flights near its border with South Korea and test-fired a barrage of missiles, saying they were a “corresponding military operation” aimed at conducting simulated strikes in response to large-scale South Korea and U.S. allied air drills.

Sullivan said that Biden will raise the issue with Chinese President Xi Jinping in their Monday meeting scheduled on the sidelines of the G-20 summit in Bali, and convey that Pyongyang represents a threat across the entire region beyond U.S. allies South Korea and Japan.

“And if North Korea keeps going down this road, it will simply mean further enhanced American military and security presence in the region,” he said. “And so, the PRC [People’s Republic of China] has an interest in playing a constructive role in restraining North Korea’s worst tendencies. Whether they choose to do so or not is of course up to them.”

 

 

Source: Voice of America