Chapter Nine - Why People Don’t Leave

CHAPTER NINE

Why People Don’t Leave

FOR A COUNTRY with over 1.4 billion people, emigration is rare.

Yes, there are students who study abroad.
Yes, there are elite families who move to Vancouver, Melbourne, or Los Angeles.
Yes, there are dissidents, exiles, and quiet exits through marriage or asylum.

But the vast majority stay.

And not because they’re trapped.

Because leaving is complicated.

First: life in China works.

The trains are fast.
The streets are safe.
The economy is strong.
Jobs are available.
Food is cheap.
The infrastructure is world-class.
And if you don’t break the rules — life is, in many ways, easier than in the West.

Second: it’s home.

The language, the family, the food, the culture — it’s yours.
You understand how things are done.
You don’t need to decode a foreign system.
You don’t need to explain where you’re from or why you’re here.

Third: nationalism isn’t just propaganda.
It’s real.

Many young people feel genuine pride in China’s rise.
They see Western media as biased.
They see U.S. politics as chaotic.
They see criticism of China as hypocritical — or worse, racist.

Even those who do want to leave face obstacles.

Passports are hard to get.
Money is hard to move.
Visas are slow and uncertain.
And after COVID, the borders became even tighter — with travel bans, exit restrictions, and sudden policy shifts that left citizens stranded abroad or barred from leaving at all.

But the biggest reason?

Most people don’t even think about it.

They’re busy.
They’re working.
They’re building a future inside the system they know.
And every force around them — education, media, family, law — nudges them to stay inside the lines.

Not with violence.

But with comfort.

And comfort, for all its silence, can be the most powerful leash of all.