Beijing, Berlin, Dusseldorf According to experts, the number of foreigners living in China has halved since the beginning of the corona pandemic. The recent lockdowns are likely to further exacerbate the trend. Even with comparatively low numbers of cases, the authorities seal off entire blocks of houses, districts or even metropolises of millions in order to comply with the strict zero-Covid strategy of the government.
An engineer who only went to China for a large German car manufacturer at the beginning of 2022 canceled his posting after a few weeks in frustration. He accepted the quarantine of several weeks in a hotel room upon entry. When a curfew was imposed at his destination, the expert had had enough.
“Constantly looking through dirty windows in the hotel room, eating out of plastic bowls and the fear of being completely locked up again” – life is “too short for such things”, reports the engineer. On the plane back to Germany, employees from other companies were also on board who had ended their stay in the People’s Republic prematurely.
China is currently experiencing the worst Covid wave since the outbreak of the pandemic in Wuhan. A strict curfew has been in place for more than five weeks in the metropolis of Shanghai, which has a population of 25 million. Almost a quarter of all foreigners currently working in China live there.
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Since the borders were closed in March 2020, the People’s Republic has lost its attractiveness for so-called expats, says Volker Treier, head of foreign trade at the Association of German Chambers of Industry and Commerce (DIHK). “In addition to the international travel restrictions, there are now severe cuts in the lives of people on site.” That deters many – and makes it increasingly unattractive, complicated and expensive for companies to send employees.
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Beijing’s political will has long been: produce locally and with local workers. The pandemic and lockdowns have accelerated this trend, says Christina Otte, economics expert at the federal foreign trade company GTAI: “The localization trend fits in well with the Chinese government’s concept.”
Conversely, since Corona, it has become much more difficult for foreign companies to get employees excited about China. Even locations like Hong Kong would become less popular with expats due to the political situation and the zero-Covid policy.
“Anyone who is completely new doesn’t get in,” says a personnel consultant who recruits a lot in Asia. Others would have to put up with long waiting times due to lockdowns. Companies are therefore already offering bonus payments to specialists who are particularly in demand in order to make a career move to China – even if this is less attractive than it has been for a long time.
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The mood among the lockdown-plagued expats in Shanghai is very mixed, reports Thilo Zimmermann, head of the SEB branch there. He was still there himself until the end of April. Some wanted to “get out at any price in the world and never set foot in China again”. Others, however, would accept the situation. However, the mental stress is “almost unbearable”.
Worst of all is the worry of being admitted to one of the central quarantine camps. These are mass camps without any privacy and sometimes with precarious hygienic conditions. The situation is particularly difficult for families. Because the concern that children will be housed separately from their parents in central facilities in the event of a corona infection is a concern for many.
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Upon request, Adidas informed that it supports its employees in the isolated Shanghai by delivering food packages and psychological help by phone or online. Even before the pandemic, the sporting goods manufacturer had mainly relied on local employees in China. “Expats tend to be the exception. That hasn’t changed,” the company said.
The expat exodus has already had an impact on others. Take Webasto as an example: the automotive supplier recently made almost 40 percent of its sales in China. The company has eleven locations in China – in recent years, however, only eight employees from Germany have worked there. Before there were twice as many.
“It is becoming increasingly difficult for foreign companies to keep in touch with their own employees,” says GTAI expert Otte. If things continue like this, it is quite realistic that the number of postings to the People’s Republic will continue to fall.
Emigration of foreign skilled workers from China: Official statistics are missing
According to official data, around 845,700 expats lived in the People’s Republic in 2020. However, Jörg Wuttke, President of the European Chamber of Commerce in China, estimates that the number has probably halved in the meantime. In the summer, when the school year ends, he believes the number could halve again.
Although there are no official statistics on churn in recent weeks. But real estate agents, law firms and agencies that help move pets abroad are seeing a surge in churn requests, Reuters reports. In online chat groups, those affected exchange views on how best to leave the city.
However, SEB manager Zimmermann assumes that many will come back when the corona situation eases. He has brought forward the home leave that was planned anyway, the first in 28 months, due to the lockdowns. Depending on what the entry conditions look like, he wants to return to Shanghai in June.
Collaboration: Nicole Bastian
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