The news, local and national in the US, and among US close partners, often shows footage of Chinese nationals risking life and limb to get into the US across its south-border and elsewhere. The narrative we’re told is that Chinese citizens want a taste of freedom. We rest our heads on our pillows that night thankful we live in a nation blessed with the desired life everyone around the world longs to enjoy. In our American dreams, we forget our personal troubles and slumber deeply in our American pride. But, what if I told you all this was a lullaby meant to pacify us. Or perhaps, at best, an idea-zombie, to easily sought after in an echo chamber of journalists not digging deeply enough to see its all only a dream.

Do Chinese nationals come to the US in search of a better life. No doubt. So, what’s missing? Just about everything else. So the question we should be asking is just how many Chinese citizens expatriate, or migrate out of China. The answer is simple enough. A total of 10.7 million Chinese folks, who are currently living, have migrated out of China and live elsewhere in the world. What about US citizens? A total of 9 million US citizens are currently living abroad, with many working and retiring elsewhere. That’s roughly the same amount. But what’s different is that China’s population is about 3 times that of the US. Why don’t we then see at least four times the migration out of China as we do out of the US?

One might ask, perhaps Chinese people simply have less opportunity to go abroad? Fair question. I’m glad you asked. According to the website Statista, China leads the world in global tourism.¹ Meaning more Chinese are world travelers than people from any other country in the world. So, Chinese people have ample opportunity to leave China but about as many total Chinese as American citizens choose to expatriate. So, what’s going on then?

More US citizens migrate out of the US to live abroad than Chinese migrate out of China to live outside their country of citizenship, as a percentage of the respective populations. The fact of the matter is that American citizens are four times as likely to migrate out of the US and live elsewhere as Chinese are to leave their home country to live elsewhere.

Sometimes, slipshod journalism, like only showing Chinese immigrants entering the US, leads to an erroneous understanding of what the world is like. The zombie-idea that Chinese people would do anything to live in the USA needs to finally be decapitated. Its time US journalists started digging just a little deeper. There’s a lot we could all learn if we stopped regurgitating the same old tropes, especially because they help us sleep at night. Journalism should give us new insights and knowledge of the world, not lullabies.

1. https://www.statista.com/chart/31638/china-will-supply-most-future-new-travelers/ ↩︎