Song Xia does not want her real name used. The young professional is neither a dissident nor an activist, yet she fears the watchful eyes of the Chinese state. After she left Shanghai to work in the Netherlands in 2012 she kept in touch with friends on WeChat, a Chinese app. Then she realised some of her messages were being censored. Even in her new country she is careful what she says in public and only goes to places she considers “safe"—those where no members of the Chinese Communist Party are present.

       Ms Song is typical of many Chinese who have moved to the West in recent years: well-educated and wealthy, unlike the labourers who dominated earlier emigrant communities. The number of Chinese abroad has doubled since 1990. It has risen particularly fast since 2000. The pandemic heightened the desire of many members of the elite to leave, as their resentment grew of covid-related controls and the party’s ever-tightening restrictions on freedom of expression. China ended its battle against covid late in 2022, but its faltering economy and high youth unemployment are fuelling people’s anxieties. Many young Chinese now use the term runxue, “the art of running", to convey their desire to flee.

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