News

China’s Business Elite See the Country That Let Them Thrive Slipping Away


“When the ability to govern declines, even in the absence of any specific policies from the top, the carelessness, brutality and ignorance of lower officials,” Mr. Wu said. will create disaster for the people they rule. is a senior research scholar at the Stanford Center for Economics and Institutions of China.

Many entrepreneurs have lost a lot of money under the “zero-Covid” regime, which closed cities and locked millions of people in their homes for weeks at a time as the government sought to eliminate the coronavirus.

“Under the leadership of this dictator, our great country is falling into the abyss,” said a hardware technology executive in Shenzhen. “But you can’t do anything about it. It makes me hurt and depressed.”

Despite having many conversations over the years, we never talked about politics. I was surprised when he called after the party congress to talk about his “political depression”. He said he used to be very nationalistic, believing that the Chinese are some of the smartest and hardworking people in the world. Now, he and many of his friends spend most of their time hiking, golfing, and drinking. “We were too bored to work,” he said.

Until a year ago, his startup was doing so well that he planned to take it public. Then he lost a large chunk of his revenue and his new hires stood still with nothing to do as cities went into lockdown under the “zero-Covid” rule. He said he now has no choice but to lay off more than 100 people, sell his business and move his family to North America.

“Since the night has fallen,” he said, “I will deal with it the way of the night.”

The tech entrepreneur from Beijing who texted me after the party congress recounts a chilling experience. In May, when there were rumors that Beijing might be closed, he felt he could not ask employees to leave work early and do grocery shopping. He was worried that he might be reported for spreading rumours – which has resulted in many people being detained by the police. He just told them that they should leave early if there was something they needed to take care of.

This successful businessman is currently applying to immigrate to a European country and the United States.

news7f

News7F: Update the world's latest breaking news online of the day, breaking news, politics, society today, international mainstream news .Updated news 24/7: Entertainment, Sports...at the World everyday world. Hot news, images, video clips that are updated quickly and reliably

Related Articles

Back to top button