September 7, 2011

Residents of developing countries continue to look for new havens in the industrialized world.  This recent article discusses Chinese Residents that are realizing what they need to do to ensure security for their wealth and for the education of their children.  This is an example of one of the many types of clients that we at the U.S. Immigration Fund advise in the EB-5 Program process.   Please read the below article from the Associated Press, which brings these new needs and desires to light.

Top of Chinese wealthy’s wish list? To leave China

BEIJING (AP) — Chinese millionaire Su builds skyscrapers in Beijing and is one of the people powering China’s economy on its path to becoming the world’s biggest.
He sits at the top of a country — economy booming, influence spreading, military swelling — widely expected to dominate the 21st century.
Yet the property developer shares something surprising with many newly rich in China: he’s looking forward to the day he can leave.
Su’s reasons: He wants to protect his assets, he has to watch what he says in China and wants a second child, something against the law for many Chinese.
The millionaire spoke to The Associated Press on condition that only his surname was used because of fears of government reprisals that could damage his business.
China’s richest are increasingly investing abroad to get a foreign passport, to make international business and travel easier but also to give them a way out of China.
The United States is the most popular destination for Chinese emigrants, with rich Chinese praising its education and healthcare systems. Last year, nearly 68,000 Chinese-born people became legal permanent residents of the U.S., seven percent of the total and second only to those born in Mexico. Canada and Australia are also popular.
It is a bothersome trend for China’s communist leaders who’ve pinned the legitimacy of one-party rule on delivering rapid economic growth and a rising standard of living. They’ve succeeded in lifting tens of millions of ordinary Chinese out of poverty while also creating a new class of super rich. Yet affluence alone seems a poor bargain to those with the means to live elsewhere.
Despite more economic freedom, the communist government has kept its tight grip on many other aspects of daily life. China’s leaders punish, sometimes harshly, public dissent and any perceived challenges to their power, and censor what can be read online and in print. Authoritarian rule, meanwhile, has proved ineffective in addressing long standing problems of pollution, contaminated food and a creaking health care system.
“In China, nothing belongs to you. Like buying a house. You buy it but it will belong to the country 70 years later,” said Su, lamenting the government’s land leasing system.
“But abroad, if you buy a house, it belongs to you forever,” he said. “Both businessmen and government officials are like this. They worry about the security of their assets.”
Leo Liu, marketing manager at Beijing emigration consultants Goldlink, said the company has noticed an increasing trend of rich Chinese wanting to emigrate, particularly to Canada, in the 15 years since it was founded.
The main reasons people want to move abroad, he said, are their children’s education and for better healthcare. Some want to leave because they got their money illegally, such as corrupt government officials and businesspeople, while others are inspired by friends who have already emigrated to the U.S.
“They want to get a green card even though they may still do business here in China,” Liu said. “They might have sent their wife and children abroad.
“And some of them just love life in a foreign country, the Western style,” he said.
There is also a yawning gap between rich and poor in China, which feeds a resentment that makes some of the wealthy uncomfortable. The country’s uneven jump to capitalism over the last three decades has created dozens of billionaires, but China barely ranks in the top 100 on a World Bank list of countries by income per person.
Getting a foreign passport is like “taking out an insurance policy,” said Rupert Hoogewerf, who compiles the Hurun Rich List, China’s version of the Forbes list.
“If there is political unrest or suddenly things change in China — because it’s a big country, something could go wrong — they already have a passport to go overseas. It’s an additional safety net.”
Among the 20,000 Chinese with at least 100 million yuan ($15 million) in individual investment assets, 27 percent have already emigrated and 47 percent are considering it, according to a report by China Merchants Bank and U.S. consultants Bain & Co. published in April.
Nearly 60 percent of the people surveyed said worries over their children’s education are a reason for wanting to leave.
A millionaire who works in the coal industry, who also spoke on condition of anonymity, said the main push behind his plans to emigrate is China’s test-centric school system, often criticized for producing students who can pass exams but who lack skills for the world of work.
He will take his 7-year-old to the U.S. as soon as the child graduates from junior high at an international school in Beijing where pupils are instructed in English.
“The U.S. has a good educational system and excellent health care,” said the 39-year-old, who has three homes in China and assets worth $5 million. “That’s why we look forward to going there.”
Other top motivations cited in the Merchants Bank study are to protect assets and to prepare for retirement. Also cited as reasons for leaving: having more children and making it easier to develop an overseas business.
Alongside increased emigration there has also been a massive outflow of private money from China despite its strict currency controls. The report estimates that rich Chinese — those with assets of more than 10 million yuan — have about 3.6 trillion yuan ($564 billion) invested overseas.
“The Chinese economy now looks like a massive funnel,” said Zhong Dajun, director of the non-governmental Dajun Center for Economic Observation & Studies in Beijing.
Zhong said it is mostly corrupt government officials who transfer entire fortunes overseas because they have been illegally acquired and “they have fears and feel guilty.”
Wealthy Russians have also been establishing footholds abroad for the past decade, seeking a safe haven both for their money and their children. In recent years, the trend has extended to Russia’s emerging middle class. They cannot afford to invest in London, a favorite destination for Russia’s billionaires and millionaires, so have been setting up second homes in less expensive European countries, including those like the Czech Republic that were once part of the Soviet bloc.
Su, the property developer, intends to stay in China and continue building residential high-rises and office buildings for another 10 years because he fears it would be too difficult for him to replicate his mainland business success abroad.
His wife is already in the U.S., expecting their second child. Under China’s one-child policy in place for the last three decades to control population growth, couples can be penalized for having more than one child. In Beijing, the penalty is a one-off fee 3-10 times the city’s average income, a maximum of 250,000 yuan ($40,000).
“The living conditions abroad are better, like residential conditions, food safety and education,” said the millionaire as he dined in the VIP room of a Beijing restaurant. Lowering his voice, he said for many rich there are worries about the authoritarian government. “This is a very sensitive topic. Everyone knows this. It’s freer and more just abroad,” he said.

This recent article from the Associated Press touches on the desires of the wealthy citizens of China, who hope to move to the developed world. The EB-5 program offers the perfect opportunity to address these desires, with companies like the U.S. Immigration Fund offering projects that will allow foreign investors to obtain their U.S. Green Card through the EB-5 Program.  Please visit our webpages to learn more about the EB-5 Projects currently available from the USIF or to learn more about the EB-5 Program.2011年9月7日

发展中国家的居民不断在工业化世界寻求新的天堂。这篇最近的文章讨论了中国的居民正意识到他们应该做什么来保护他们的财富以及保证子女的教育。这是我们佛罗里达区域中心在EB-5方案进程中所碰到的形形色色的客户中的一个例子。请阅读以下由美联社发表的关于中国富有居民的不断增长愿望的文章。

中国富有阶层的最大愿望居然是离开中国？

北京（美联社）–中国的百万富翁苏在北京建造摩天大楼，他是推动中国经济成为世界最强的人员之一。

他站在这样的国家的最高峰—经济增长，影响力扩大，军事力量壮大—被认为最有可能支配21世纪的国家。

然而这个房地产开发商居然有着与很多中国新兴富有阶层一样让人感到惊讶的想法：他期待着某天能够离开。

苏的理由是：他想保护他的资产，他必须时刻注意他的言论，他想要第二个孩子，而根据法律大多数中国人都只许有一个小孩。

这个百万富翁告诉美联社他在这里只使用姓是因为担心政府知道后会对他的生意产生不利干扰。

中国最富有阶层越来越多的投资国外获取外国护照，这不仅使他们能够更方便处理跨国生意及旅游，也使他们有了一条离开中国的退路。

美国是中国移民的最受欢迎的目的地，其教育和医疗保健制度为中国富人所赞不绝口。去年，近6万8千名中国出生的人们成为美国合法永久居民，占了总数的7%，仅在墨西哥出生的人数之下。加拿大以及澳大利亚也很受欢迎。

这种趋势对于中国共产党来说是一种麻烦，他们依靠一党专政的制度旨在实现经济增长快速及不断提高生活标准。他们已经成功使几千万中国平民从贫穷中脱离出来，也同时创造了一个超级富豪的新阶层。但是仅富裕本身对于那些有方法去别处居住的人们来说不算什么。

除开更多的经济自由，共产主义政府严格掌控日常生活的很多其他方面。中国领导人惩罚公众异议及任何所谓的对他们权威的挑战，这种惩罚有时候很严厉；他们也严格管控在线及出版内容。专制规则同时也导致了一些无效的长期存在的污染问题、污染食物及糟糕的医疗制度。

感叹中国的土地租赁制度，苏说：“在中国，没有什么是属于你的。就比如说买房子。你买了房子但是70年后它又归国家所有了。”

“但是，在国外，如果你买了一所房子，那么它就永远属于你了。”苏说到，“不管是生意人还是政府官员都一样，他们都担心资产的安全性。”

北京移民顾问金联公司的Leo Liu说道，公司自15年前成立以来已经注意到越来越多的中国富人想要移民，由其是移民到加拿大。

他说，人们想要移民的主要理由是为了子女的教育及更好的医疗保险。有些人想要离开是因为他们的资金获得是非法的，如贪污的政府官员和商人，而其他人是受一些已经移民去美国的友人激发的。

“尽管他们还在中国做生意但是他们也想要拿到绿卡，”刘说，“他们也许会送他们的妻子和孩子出国。“

“而有些人仅仅是由于喜欢西方化的外国生活。”他说。

中国的贫富悬殊巨大，那些怨恨使得一些富人感到不舒服。中国近30年来的资本主义跨越的不平均创造了很多的亿万富翁，而中国的人均收入水平排名基本上没进过全世界前100名。

拿到国外护照就像是“买了保险”，编辑胡润富豪榜（中国版的福布斯排行榜）的Rupert Hoogewerf说道。

“如果中国发生政治不稳定或是突然变故—由于中国是个大国，任何事都可能发生—他们就有了去国外的护照。这是一个额外的保险网。”

根据四月份有中国招商银行及美国顾问Bain&Co.发布的报告，在中国有着至少一亿人民币（1500万美元）个人投资资金的2万名中国人中，27%已经移民，而47%正在考虑中。

近60%的受调查的人群中说他们想要离开的理由之一是担忧孩子的教育。

一位匿名的煤矿业的百万富翁称他移民计划的主要推动因素是中国的应试教育制度，此制度经常被批为只会创造通过考试而缺乏工作技能的学生。

当他7岁的孩子从北京的一家英文授课的国际学校初中毕业后他将马上带孩子到美国。

“美国有着优秀的教育制度和完善的医疗保障，”这位在中国拥有3套房子资产达5百万美元的39岁的男人说道，“那就是为什么我们期望去那里。”

由招商银行统计的其他最主要的动因是保护资产和为退休做打算。

同时还有一些离开的理由是：为了生更多的孩子及为了更容易发展国外业务。

在移民热潮不断上升的同时也有大量的私人资金从中国流出，尽管中国有着严厉的货币管控。报告估算到资产超过一千万人民币的中国富人共有大约3.6兆元(5640亿美元)投资到国外。

“现下中国的经济就像个漏斗，”北京经济观察研究中心非政府大军中心的主任仲大军说。

仲说这很大部分是那些贪污的政府官员将资产转移到国外因为他们非法获得了财产而“感到恐慌及愧疚”。

俄罗斯富人在这10年来也在建立他们国外的立足点，为他们的资产及子女教育寻求一个安稳的天堂。他们负担不起在最受俄罗斯亿万及百万富翁厚爱的伦敦投资，所以就在没那么贵的欧洲国家安插他们的第二个家，这也包括曾是苏维埃联合政权组成之一的捷克共和国。

苏，这名房地产开发商称，他打算在中国待多十年并继续建造高层的住宅及办公楼，因为他担忧去了国外后会很难成功经营他的生意。

他的妻子已经在美国，且在准备生第二个孩子。在中国30年以来为了控制人口增长的独生子女的政策下，一对夫妻如果超生会被罚款。在北京，这个一次性的罚款为市平均收入的3到10倍，最高可达到25万元（4万美金）。

“在国外的生活条件如居住环境，食品安全和教育系统都比较好，”当这位百万富翁在北京的一家饭店的贵宾房吃饭的时候说。他压低声音说很多富人都担忧中国的专制政府。“这是个敏感话题。每个人都知道。在国外就比较自由和平等。”他说。

这篇最近由美联社发表的文章触动了期待移居发达国家的中国富人的愿望。EB-5方案提供了完美的机会实现他们的这些愿望，特别是有着像佛罗里达区域中心这样的公司提供让外国投资者通过EB-5方案获得美国绿卡的项目。请访问我们的网页了解更多的目前佛罗里达区域中心的EB-5项目或更多的了解EB-5方案。