"Go East, Young Man...."


In a free wheeling take on Horace Greeley’s advice to young people, the new mantra seems to be “Go East, young man.”

Several recent articles have recently touted the advantages of going east over going west.
Increasingly, today, displaced people—or those seeking new careers—are making the decision to forsake the west for potential livelihoods in China.

Why China?

For the first time since the Mao revolution, people of various backgrounds and ethnicities are flocking to China. They cite the freedom, peace and opportunity that newcomers have here over other places. Several pointed out that in Europe, they are treated below the locals but here in China, they are treated better than most Chinese.

Most of all, Chinese is open to this kind of expansion and has encouraged economic growth through the absorption of different people who can bring various new talents or contacts into the economic equation.

Towards this end, Chinese officials have recently expanded their scholarship program, making available some 8,800 scholarships this year, up from 6,000 plus last year.

These scholarships have been used to solidify contacts with countries that China needs in order to continue its economic expansion. For example, scholarship winners have come from countries where China wants to expand its trade or obtain access to precious raw materials.

Others say that China policies have allowed “outsiders” to not only derive a living but even become millionaires. These stories have circulated outside of China and contributed to the growing harmonious relationships that China enjoys with the various nations it does business with while at the same time, becoming a destination for entrepreneurs seeking a more welcoming environment for trade.

Although this is a fairly new side of China, the results so far have been encouraging and if anything, China has extended a new green card program to facilitate even more newcomers who have money to invest in a China introducing them to a climate that seems to impose few limits on the economic freedoms enjoyed here. One does not have to go beyond the new free trade zones to see what is possible and how China has gone through an economic revolution to produce a whole new class of entrepreneurs and business men virtually overnight. This lesson is not lost on anyone and should neither be ignored by the west if it hopes to compete effectively with a country that claims to be communist but is more capitalistic than its counterparts in the west.


Les Aaron