In the interview I comment on the current difficulties for foreigners to obtain (and keep) a valid visa. Published in the edition August/September 2013:
http://www.shijiezhongguo.com/2013-46.pdf
“It is not easy to stay abord” (sic – should be aboard!) – Pages 23 to 25
The new regulations for visas, work permits and related are certainly not favorable for foreigners. In my opinion, China is closing its doors more and more for foreigners to work and live here. There is no real immigration as in other countries. The amount of foreigners in China is ridiculously low: maybe 1 million in a population of over 1.3 billion. Compare that to other countries.
And I guess it is only going to get worse. Once the new requirements trickle in, many will leave. Anyway a bunch of foreigners is already leaving (or refusing to come here) because of the horrendous pollution. Talk with people who do HR, moving, food and beverage, and you will get the picture.
China forgets that immigration has proved to be one of the vital factors for innovation and entrepreneurship in a country.
All the lip service of “China is a so friendly” and “China welcomes foreigners” is a lot of hot air.
China only welcomes our money and our technology?
I am preparing a more detailed report on the issue.
Comments from friends (through Facebook):
Friend 1: It’s about the money and technology…..for the rest, despite of the many shitty situations China feels overly confident it is the greatest place on earth. With one command of the government the whole country will look suspicious at you (the 100 day campaign), Weibo and blogs are full of ridiculous stories about the terrible foreigner. There are too many frustrated angry and arrogant/psychopathic young Chinese walking around and the country isn’t as safe as it used to be. I have lived here a long time and it isn’t moving into a better or more open society. The narrow-mindedness keeps popping up, the silly rules and regulations. I hope at some point society moves to version 2.0 since the updates after 1.0 all failed after installation. Maybe the operating system itself needs to be replaced with a more user friendly interface.
Friend2: I’m even less optimistic here. At 2.0 a whole myriad of new problems occur. China’s rise will come at the price of just about every last individual / entity that might even be suspected of blocking its path. Save those individuals / WFOEs that sing the glories of the CCP, day in, day out, or are just fat-stinking-rich and not anti-CCP, it’s really time to move out of the place.