Stay sustainably

Another article about another American leaving China. This one is a weird one though.

But from 2023 — a time of widespread pressures on local government finances following three years of virus restrictions and a property slowdown — he was asked instead to pay closer to market rent. Given that his visa was tied to his employment operations, as with most foreigners in China, a much more uncertain arrangement took hold.

He and his wife rolled up (flew over?) to China in their 40s and started a government subsidized boutique hotel and planned to stay here for "40 years." The local government renegotiated their contract so that the business was no longer government subsidized and it sounds like now the economics no longer work. It sounds like he'd like to stay but his stay was tied to a work visa.

What makes it weird is who moves to a country in their 40s to a country that has stopped renewing work visas at age 60 for basically forever and plans to stay for 40 years without figuring out some method besides a work visa. You'd think this would be obvious, but I've run into many older folks who run up against the 60 year old age barrier with no plan.

It's not an impossible problem to solve as there are a number of ways for foreigners to stay in China forever. There is, of course, the so-called "China Green Card" - a "permanent" residence card for the Chinese mainland. There's also permanent residence in either of China's two special administrative regions, Hong Kong or Macau. Or the good old marriage route and obtaining a family or dependent visa.

While it's not odd that a couple such as this didn't seem to think about how to stay in the country sustainably...people move to countries and run into these sorts of visa problems all the time. They're just not usually the sort of people you'd read about in the Financial Times. It makes you wonder why this "story" was published at all.