For China’s growing numbers of high-net-worth citizens, the top immigration destination remains the United States.
China is projected to have 1.12 million residents who have at least 10 million yuan ($1.56 million) by the end of the year — a 23% increase over last year’s 910,000 count — according to a report from Forbes’ Chinese edition and Fu Hua Asset.
Altogether, those 1.12 million individuals will own up to 114.5 trillion yuan ($17.81 trillion) in investable assets, an increase of 7.8% from last year.
Jia Kang, president of the China Academy of New Supply-side Economics, told the South China Morning Post more wealthy mainlanders could mean a widening average income gap.
“It shows the economy has brought more benefits for them than for the poor,” he said.
In a separate poll of high-net-worth Chinese who are thinking about immigrating or have already immigrated, the U.S. proved to be the most popular destination country because of its property market, health care and immigration policy, according to the report.
The second most popular immigration destination was Britain, for its health care. Canada fell to third place this year from the spot following the country’s termination of its wealth-based Immigrant Investor Program.
