Why China’s Elites Still Want to Leave
Social callousness pushes even the prosperous to seek new lives overseas.
Why do China's elites still want to leave? The desire to leave China has become so widespread that netizens coined the term runxue, or "runology," to describe how to escape the country in the early 2020s. A born-and-bred Beijinger with a well-paying job at an international company, my friend witnessed a man having a seizure on a busy Beijing street in 2018.
While several people stood nearby, no one checked on the man. My friend felt compelled to call an ambulance, but when she waited for help, many people passed by without stopping. A boy simply asked his father what was happening, and his father told him to mind his own business. The next day, she began searching for ways to leave China and eventually accepted a transfer to one of the company's U.S. offices.
While China boasts impressive advances in clean energy, artificial intelligence, and robotics, people still want to leave due to a pervasive sense of distrust and indifference in public life. In 2023, a Shanghai man stopped an elderly woman from falling on a subway escalator, but stories like these often bring negative consequences for the good Samaritan, such as financial liability or false accusations.
This fear of being deceived or exploited remains deeply rooted in Chinese society, where strangers often hesitate to help others because of this mistrust.
Written by urgent.news from Foreign Policy's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
