This is posted by Winston Sterzel a guy that lived in China for 14 years, learned Chinese and speaks it well, married a local Chinese woman and has a love for the country. But who left, in 2019. Because... well, he describes in the post I just linked. And also here. Where, he says, they tried a honey trap on him.
I too love China. It's been the whole of my adult life. Since 1976.
I don't like and don't celebrate the fact that foreigners are leaving China. It's just a fact. Which I know also from mates living in China. Who confirm that increased surveillance they feel. All of which is coming from the top. But may also be exacerbated by the Trump tariffs which have hit many businesses hard.
Expat numbers in Beijing are down 40% on pre-Covid days. And down 60% in my favourite city, Shanghai, where I spent a Golden Year in 1990. These are dramatic declines, which one would think are surely worrying the leadership, if only for the declining interest they may reflect in China's domestic market. But no hint that they are.
