China faces zero-Covid lockdown brain drain with visa inquiry spike
- Emigration consultants say applications for US, Canada and Australia have soared, with interest strongest among tech professionals
- The sector is key to the country’s ambitious plans to become a science and technology superpower within the next two decades
Residents of China’s wealthiest city have spent nearly two months in lockdown, with reports of deaths and people unable to get proper medical treatment triggering waves of anger and anxiety.
In the capital Beijing, a smaller outbreak this month has led to less restrictive measures, with frequent mass testing and a shutdown of transport and businesses in specific areas of the city.
According to an estimate from Japanese financial services conglomerate Nomura Holdings, about 373 million people in 45 cities across China have been under some form of lockdown since April.
There are no hard statistics indicating how widespread interest is in leaving the country, but the keyword “immigration” jumped 400 times in the past month, according to the Baidu Index, which covers multiple social media platforms. A similar increase was also evident on the WeChat platform.
Any large-scale exodus of professional talent would deal a blow to China’s timetable to become a leading world power in science and technology within the next 20 years, laid out by President Xi Jinping at a high-level meeting in September.