For the first time, the number of Chinese millionaires emigrating has ranked first in the world.
Last year, this "honor" still belonged to Russia.
This data comes from the "Global Wealth Migration Report" released by the famous British consulting company Henley & Partners on the 13th of this month.
The report gives the top 10 countries with the most millionaire emigrants and the top 10 countries receiving the most millionaire emigrants estimated this year.
Chinese millionaires rank first with a number of 13,500, followed by India, the United Kingdom, Russia, Brazil, and others.
Among the top 10 countries receiving millionaires, Australia tops the list, followed by the United Arab Emirates, Singapore, the United States, Switzerland, Canada, Greece, France, Portugal, and New Zealand.
This report has been released since 2013 and has certain authority in the industry. Its statistical method is to track the movements of 150,000 high-net-worth individuals in its database and obtain data based on the living locations of these wealthy people.
For the definition of millionaires, that is, high-net-worth individuals emigrating, it refers to people who have a net worth of $1 million available for investment and live overseas for more than half a year.
If defined in this way, then this data is still very conservative. The actual data will only be more and not less, because what is popular now is "emigration without relocation". Many millionaires may just have bought an overseas identity with money but have not lived abroad for a long time.
Behind this record-breaking great migration of millionaires reveals the restless funds and people's hearts under the stagnant global economic growth and the turbulent international situation.
In the past few years, we have experienced too many things. Sometimes looking back, it feels like a lifetime ago.
First of all, there is the three-year epidemic. People are facing the impact of viruses and containment policies on life and living. Then there is the Russia-Ukraine war, which once again casts people under the shadow of a world war. What has a wider impact is the stagnation of global economic growth. People have become more pessimistic about the future, have lowered their expectations one after another, weakened market confidence, and created a vicious circle of economic stagnation.
No one knows when the next black swan will appear. Perhaps it will be another major power conflict or a full-blown global financial crisis.
So, high-net-worth individuals who truly have the ability to achieve the migration of wealth and bodies start to take action. They are looking for more stable investment markets and safer havens around the world.
From the countries receiving wealthy people in the report, we can see that global millionaires still pin their hopes on traditional developed countries. Such as Australia, the United States, Switzerland, Canada, and so on.
The United Arab Emirates is an exception, but geopolitical reasons must be considered. After the outbreak of the Russia-Ukraine war, Russian millionaires are more inclined to these non-Western developed countries. At the same time, in the entire Middle East region, the United Arab Emirates, with its open, stable, and prosperous free market, has also become a major country receiving funds and immigrants in the region.
Last year, the United Arab Emirates absorbed 4,000 millionaires and ranked first in the world. According to Agence France-Presse, the number of Russian entrepreneurs and start-ups going to Dubai in the United Arab Emirates increased tenfold year-on-year last year.
As for why the number of Chinese millionaires emigrating has started to increase, it is mainly related to the end of epidemic control.
When epidemic control was the strictest last year, the search volume for "emigration" on the Chinese Internet increased greatly. People saw so many happy crowds gathering without wearing masks in the World Cup, and naturally felt uncomfortable. When the control ended, the pent-up demand for going abroad was released collectively.
The time stolen by the epidemic has disrupted the normal rhythm of many Chinese people going abroad for tourism, studying abroad, investing, working, and living. After finally waiting for the day when control ends, people naturally rush to be the first.
As the most international city in mainland China, Shanghai's enthusiasm for going abroad after the end of control is in line with the temperament of this city.
From January 9 to February 8, 2023, the Exit-Entry Administration Department of the Shanghai Public Security Bureau received more than 380,000 applications for exit-entry documents for Chinese citizens, setting a historical record.
Moreover, as European and American countries are gradually reducing the staff of Chinese visa centers, currently, visa applications for many popular countries are in a queuing state.
Regarding the latest appointment situation for American B visas (non-immigrant tourist and business visas for foreigners to make short-term stays in the United States), the Shanghai consular district has been scheduled until November; the Guangzhou consular district has been scheduled until October; the Beijing consular district has also been scheduled until the end of August; and the Shenyang consular district has been scheduled until July.
Popular Schengen countries such as France, Switzerland, Italy, and Spain are basically after August.
Due to the fact that in the short term, embassies and consulates of European countries in China cannot increase the appointment volume of embassies, consulates, and visa centers to meet the rapidly growing visa demand. Therefore, it is expected that long waiting times will be unavoidable throughout 2023.
Many people feel disgusted about millionaire emigration and think that this is the rhythm of running away after making money. In fact, this view is very one-sided.
It is undeniable that some millionaires just make money and then want to find a place they like to enjoy. But there is still a large part who are making overseas investments. That is what I mentioned earlier, looking for new places that are more in line with their current investment strategies. This is also the overseas strategy that we strongly support now.
For example, due to tariff issues, many Chinese factory owners choose to invest and build factories in Vietnam. After production is completed, they export from Vietnam to avoid high tariffs. But in fact, it is still Chinese companies that earn the most.
In addition, under the extremely fierce competition in the domestic market, Chinese Internet e-commerce companies choose to explore the Southeast Asian market. For example, companies like Tencent, Alibaba, and Xiaomi have started such investment strategies several years ago. Transferring low-end industries to less developed areas is the same reason as when developed countries came to invest in China just after reform and opening up.
The reasons for millionaires to emigrate are diverse. The flow of wealth is becoming more and more frequent, which is also a manifestation of closer globalization.
Also, it should be mentioned that emigration is ultimately more friendly to millionaires. Ninety percent of those who frantically searched for "emigration" on the Internet at the beginning can only think about it and cannot succeed in emigrating.
To emigrate, either you have courage and perseverance, or you have wealth, or you have professional skills (such as super language ability, degrees from prestigious schools, talents in innovative industries, etc.), or luck. If you don't have any of these, you may only sigh in despair.
