For the entrepreneur class leaving China is the best resistance to Communist rule – Entrepreneur who fled China to Malta
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Chen Tianyong, a Chinese real estate developer in Shanghai, boarded a flight to Malta last month with no plans to return anytime soon.After landing, Mr. Chen, a former judge and lawyer, shared on social media a 28-page article explaining himself.
“Why I Left China,” read the headline, “An Entrepreneur’s Farewell Admonition.”“China’s economy is like a giant ship heading to the precipice,” Mr. Chen wrote. “Without fundamental changes, it’s inevitable that the ship will be wrecked and the passengers will die.”
“My friends,” he urged, “if you can leave, please make arrangements as early as possible.”It is unclear how many people saw the article before it disappeared from China’s heavily censored internet. But Mr. Chen said publicly what many businesspeople in China are saying privately: China’s leadership has mismanaged the world’s second-largest economy, and China’s entrepreneur class is losing confidence in the country’s future.
Chen said he had finally settled on Malta because it was warm, beautiful and a member of the European Union, which meant he would be able to travel to other countries in the bloc.
For the entrepreneur class, he said, leaving China is the best way to resist Communist rule. Once people leave, they will manage to take at least some assets with them despite the strict capital controls the government has imposed in recent years. They can come back when the circumstances change, Mr. Chen said, much like many overseas Chinese did in the 1980s and ’90s.
Mr. Chen is learning English and exploring his interest in religion. He still has some businesses in China but doesn’t need to tend to them in person. He said he had never really considered changing his citizenship because life was tough for first-generation immigrants. He only wanted to find a safe place for his family, he said, to protect against a worst-case scenario that he believes will materialize unless there’s a miracle.
“I didn’t expect my article would be circulated so widely,” he said. “For the time being, it might be best that I stay out of China.”
Via New York Times – The full version of this article appears in print on , on Page A1 of the New York edition with the headline: Entrepreneurs Wary About Direction of China
Photo Credit – Gianni Cipriano for The New York Times
