It was reported in June 2022 that the continued lockdowns and quarantines imposed in Shanghai and other Chinese cities have pushed China’s middle-class to explore plans to move overseas as people grew more concerned about further restrictions that may be imposed to encroach on their basic freedoms and also lead to economic and social stagnation. Following Shanghai’s reopening on June 1, 2022, authorities imposed new city-wide lockdowns with over 1 million citizens confined at home or in quarantine facilities due to recent outbreaks of COVID-19. The endless cycle of easing and increasing restrictions has become emotionally and psychologically taxing on citizens. 

“They have neither freedom nor safety.”

According to Chen Daoyin, a political scientist and former associate professor at the Shanghai University of Political Science and Law, “The middle-class group expected a decent life… Before they exchanged freedom for security, but now they have neither freedom nor safety.” A writer in Shanghai told the CS Monitor that she had never lived abroad before but was planning to save up to leave, as she claimed that no one could protect themselves during the lockdown. “This thing is universal – your freedom of residence and freedom of travel will be restricted. You may get a knock on the door and be taken away in the middle of the night.”

Online discussions about “running away from China” or “runxue” (a newly created word for “run philosophy” to avoid censorship) have surged. “Emigration” was also searched more than 100 million times on a single day in May 2022 on WeChat, and interests in emigration or “run philosophy” could similarly be found in other social media platforms like Weibo and Zhihu.

#theLastGeneration

China’s youths, especially those who were educated abroad, fear that the zero-Covid-19 policy was no longer economically feasible, with recent figures showing China’s economy contracting, thus many have plans to return abroad. A video went viral and became an online meme showing police officers warning a young man’s family that they would be punished for three generations for refusing to go to a quarantine camp, in which the man replied, “this will be our last generation,” before it was censored by the authorities. Many young people in their 20s and 30s identified with the sentiment, with one Weibo user stating that, “Not bringing children to this country, to this land, will be the most charitable deed I could manage” under the hashtag #thelastgeneration before it was censored. 

According to the Economist, online search trends show that China’s young and educated elite are thinking about leaving the country. Spikes in the searches for “run” on Chinese social media platforms coincided with traumatic events in Shanghai, such as when an asthma patient was refused medical treatment and died, or when videos of infected children separated from their parents spread online.

Sharing Run Philosophy Resources on GitHub

Countless accounts offering detailed strategies and tips on how to emigrate from China can be found on GitHub, a rare foreign platform that is not censored in China.  For example, a post on runxue include details of:

• FAQs on a range of issues, e.g., visa / passport applications, immersion problems for new immigrants, psychological barriers, cultural differences, differences in political ideologies, language barriers, family settlement, transfer of assets, logistics, healthcare, etc.

• how to emigrate, e.g., apply for work or student visa, work for a foreign company and apply for internal transfer to an overseas position, etc.

• what is “run” and how “run” does not equate to betraying your country, etc.

• when is the best time to “run” at the different stages of your studies / career, etc.

• where to “run” to, with the top three countries being Canada, Japan and Singapore.

• why you should “run”

There are also a number of posts on how to “run” to specific countries. For example, one post gives detailed step-by-step advice on how to immigrate to Australia even if you do not have much money, and another post shares the user’s personal experience on immigrating to Canada.

Brokers / Traffickers

Our sources in China who have helped North Korean refugees previously escape out of China tell us that brokers have been busy servicing Chinese nationals who are willing to pay a steep premium in fees. While this may be impossible to validate, Chinese authorities imposing tighter controls to “strictly restrict non-essential exit activities of Chinese citizens” as part of its zero-Covid-19 policy, including suspending the issuance of passports to people with “non-urgent” reasons for leaving the country last year makes this news seem plausible.

 Experts state that “this may be the status in China for the next three-to-five, or five-to-10 years.” Thus, citizens are more likely to rely on traffickers or brokers to leave the country going forward.

Additionally, another source in Chongqing states that the demand for hiring brokers to arrange for sham marriages for the purpose of emigration is rising, especially among young working professionals, including doctors, who are able to pay large sums to process the necessary paperwork.