A report from the Chinese newspaper Economic Observer on May 22 shows an increase in the number of wealthy Chinese who want to leave the mainland. Statistics from the Beijing Exit & Entry Service Association for 2009 show applicants for investment immigration visas to the U.S. doubled to more than 1,000.

Among the various incentives and justifications for this, children's education and improved security are the top two. Education is an easy reason to comprehend. However, the lack of security for the wealthy should cause the public to reflect on today's society.

Principally, a faulty legal system and the restriction of private capital harm the investment environment. Furthermore, the widening wealth gap triggers anger at the perception that wealth equates wrong-doing, and this builds resentment toward the rich. Under these conditions, the wealthy panic and feel their lives and fortunes threatened.

Yet the wealthy in China have always lived under a dilemma. On the one hand, most of them rely on state power to develop their businesses. China's administrative monopoly creates invisible ceilings to impede fair market competition. On the other hand, as people gain their wealth through bribery, the wealthy class is presumed sinful, especially by the lower classes and young people. As long as these social contradictions continue to intensify, the wealthy will remain threatened to some degree, and as a result, they have no choice but to seek escaping their homeland.

This is not an isolated problem, because the loss of the wealthy affects the entire society and lessens the poor's economic opportunities. The massive loss of wealth may far exceed foreign investment in China during the past 30 years. Other nations attract the wealthy and elite with high-quality education and low tax rates. For China, it's like other countries harvest the fruit China planted and cultivated.

Even if the presumed guilt of the wealthy exists, state power cannot absolve itself from blame. Wealthy officials and business people acquired their riches through aggressive government control and market intervention. The wealth gap has been created by an administrative monopoly. So resentment toward the rich forces them and their fortunes to flee, but the unchecked state power remains. Therefore, society must be cautious and vigilant toward state power.

Society should make the wealthy more self-disciplined, more secure and freer within the law. For example, diminishing government control will unshackle entrepreneurs from state power. Breaking the administrative monopoly allows the wealthy to increase investment and create more jobs and subsequently, raise the wealth of all in society. The best way to retain the wealthy is to permit them to run schools, enterprises, hospitals and charitable organizations. The worst option is to resent them, deprive them of their wealth, or even wipe out their wealth entirely. The latter will force the wealthy to accumulate fortune more quickly and exacerbate corruption at all levels of society.

(This article was translated by Ren Zhongxi.)