China’s middle class looks to flee as COVID policies bite

China’s middle class looks to flee as COVID policies bite

BEIJING: Alan Li no longer sees any future for his family in China after harsh COVID rules decimated his business, upended his son’s education and left his country out of step with the rest of the world. He has given up hope of a return to normal after months of lockdowns in Shanghai, and now plans to close his firm and move to Hungary, where he sees better opportunities and his 13-year-old son can attend an international school.

“Our losses this year mean that it’s over for us,” he told AFP wearily, asking to withhold his real name. “We have been using our own cash savings to pay 400 workers (during the lockdown). What if it happens again this winter?” Shanghai’s long shutdown, which brought food shortages and protests, has driven some to reconsider staying in a country where livelihoods and lifestyles can vanish at the whim of the state. Schools have been closed and exams called off, including assessments for applying to American universities.

Li is frustrated that his son’s expensive bilingual schooling has been mostly online for two years, and he is anxious about the way Beijing has tightened oversight of the curriculum. “This is a waste of our children’s youth,”