Speaker 1: For years, China's uber rich gen zs moved seamlessly between
Speaker 1: the elite societies of the East and West.
Speaker 2: So in China people call them four dye, which is
Speaker 2: second generation rich if you just translate it literally.
Speaker 1: Selina Shu was Bloomberg's reporter for investing.
Speaker 2: And these scions of the wealthy, these four Dyes, they're
Speaker 2: educated in the West, they grew up all around the world.
Speaker 2: They're fluent in multiple languages, and they moved very fluently
Speaker 2: between communists China and Otho, the intellectual cradle off the West.
Speaker 2: So when you combine all these factors together, you have
Speaker 2: a very very small pool of very intelligent, cosmopolitan, open
Speaker 2: minded young people with extremely abundant resources. So they're kind
Speaker 2: of like the top one percent of the one percent.
Speaker 1: These kids of China's top one percent, the children of
Speaker 1: casino mobiles, real estate tycoons, and billionaires. They have been
Speaker 1: playing a prizing role in building goodwill and mutual trust
Speaker 1: between China and the rest of the world. But lately,
Speaker 1: something very different is happening with this group of young
Speaker 1: and rich Chinese. They're leaving jobs and opportunities in the
Speaker 1: US to come home to China.
Speaker 2: A lot of them are choosing to gravitate home, throw
Speaker 2: their lots in with Beijing, even if it means sometimes
Speaker 2: they have to navigate revus culture shock or deal with
Speaker 2: the risk of perhaps sudden crackdowns on the affluent or
Speaker 2: on sudden sectus in society.
Speaker 1: From Bloomberg, I'm wanha and this is the big take
Speaker 1: today on the show Uber Rich. Young Chinese are returning
Speaker 1: home and taking their family fortunes with them. Why and
Speaker 1: how that's affecting US China relations. So when we're talking
Speaker 1: about the gen zs of China, we're talking about people
Speaker 1: who are mostly born between the late nineteen nineties and
Speaker 1: through the early two thousands. It was a time when
Speaker 1: US China relations were very different. Here's President George W.
Speaker 1: Bush in two thousand and six. Is the issue of
Speaker 1: the future in many ways is China, and I would
Speaker 1: call our relationship with China very positive and complex.
Speaker 2: So those were the heydays of the US China relationship.
Speaker 2: That was when the world was very open to globalization.
Speaker 2: There was a lot of trade, a lot of people
Speaker 2: to people.
Speaker 1: Exchanges, Selina says. Because these young people grew up in
Speaker 1: a time of openness between the two countries, they had
Speaker 1: a unique opportunity to help strengthen the ties between the
Speaker 1: US and China. One of the ways they did that
Speaker 1: was on college campuses in the United States and one
Speaker 1: school especially stood out.
Speaker 2: So an example I think of this is the Hubboit
Speaker 2: College China Forum. So for years like this forum has
Speaker 2: kind of brought business mogul experts leaders of their field
Speaker 2: to Harvard University and kind of brought them from both
Speaker 2: the US China, rest of the world. And he had
Speaker 2: all these people mixed together.
Speaker 1: And gassing Zeno and shall all that dat.
Speaker 2: So some of the past guests included people like Jack
Speaker 2: Ma also legend from Salemi Blackstone's Stephen Schwartzman Bridgewater as
Speaker 2: Ray Dalia, so really a kind of very very interesting
Speaker 2: mix from both countries. They were mostly invited by a
Speaker 2: very small group of student organizers, some of whom were
Speaker 2: the children of Chinese billionaires or even government officials. So
Speaker 2: the moneyed and the powerful between the world's two largest economies,
Speaker 2: and they were hopped out together every April in person
Speaker 2: and a very lively exchange of ideas. So that kind
Speaker 2: of demonstrated Walf's power to bridge geopolitical rips.
Speaker 1: With this April, the stage of the Harvard China Forum
Speaker 1: looked very.
Speaker 2: Different in this year is Hobatt College China Farm. In
Speaker 2: April twenty twenty three, only a handful of executives from
Speaker 2: mainland China came in person to the forum in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Speaker 1: Just a few years back, the ballroom at Harvard was
Speaker 1: packed and it was an annual form that was not
Speaker 1: to be missed by elite business leaders in the US
Speaker 1: and China. And as for the wealthy students who historically
Speaker 1: had helped make this forum possible.
Speaker 2: I think a lot of them are also choosing a
Speaker 2: very different path that they're gravitating home instead of staying
Speaker 2: in the US.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And why is it that that they are going home?
Speaker 1: I mean, are the tensions so bad that they feel
Speaker 1: like they have to leave the US?
Speaker 2: So Joe, political tensions is one factor. There's also the
Speaker 2: uncertainty of the global economy. There's increased hostility abroad, increased
Speaker 2: discrimination to US. A lot of Chinese nationals because of
Speaker 2: some of the policy decisions that the Chinese government has
Speaker 2: made during COVID and after. So if you look at
Speaker 2: the number of Chinese students in US universities as of
Speaker 2: January this year, as plummeted nearly thirty percent from twenty twenty,
Speaker 2: So a lot of these Chinese students just don't want
Speaker 2: to come to America anymore.
Speaker 1: For China's part, the country has its arms wide open
Speaker 1: to welcome these returnees. They're some of the best and
Speaker 1: the brightest of this generation that are now just starting
Speaker 1: their careers, and they're coming back with sought after overseas experience.
Speaker 1: Even China state media have written about them in glowing reports.
Speaker 2: More Chinese students are coming back to China instead of
Speaker 2: staying in the States.
Speaker 1: China's brain drain is getting reversed.
Speaker 2: We've also seen a huge talent deficit in China for
Speaker 2: many of the high tech sectors that they're trying to pursue,
Speaker 2: including obviously semiconductors, quantum computing, and other very high skilled
Speaker 2: service sectors. So sea turtles, as what Chinese people call
Speaker 2: these retorneyes, usually are able to offer some kind of
Speaker 2: differentiation in scales that include stuff like more hands on
Speaker 2: experiences and more global outlook our resources and connections to
Speaker 2: people abroad.
Speaker 1: But it's not just about talent returning to help start
Speaker 1: up businesses in important industries. A lot of these gen
Speaker 1: zs are also bringing money their family fortunes back into
Speaker 1: China after the break. How will the returning mega wealthy
Speaker 1: impact China's economy, We'll hear from one These young and
Speaker 1: rich Chinese are not just coming home to the mainland,
Speaker 1: They're taking their money with them, and Selena says this
Speaker 1: movement of capital flowing back to China could have big impact.
Speaker 2: Chinese tycoons, you know, the ones who built some of
Speaker 2: the world's biggest enterprises. As the nation open up to capitalism,
Speaker 2: these people are sitting on almost one point one trillion
Speaker 2: of cumulative wealth that they're as will likely control in
Speaker 2: the future. So the majority of these people, these gen
Speaker 2: zs are interested in entrepreneurship in China, are in investing
Speaker 2: Vibe family offices, sometimes in the Greater Age Pacific region
Speaker 2: in places like Singapore or Hong Kong, rather than in
Speaker 2: the West.
Speaker 1: These wealthy gen zs, the top one percent of a
Speaker 1: very exclusive club, are coming home with money and valued skills,
Speaker 1: and they're bucking a trend at home. Many middle class
Speaker 1: Chinese are concerned about China's economic future. They fear that
Speaker 1: President Hijinping's common prosperity policy might take away the wealth
Speaker 1: they've built. Many are moving with their money to places
Speaker 1: like Australia and the United States. So the capital and
Speaker 1: talent those uber rich gen zs are bringing back into
Speaker 1: China comes at a critical time for the country.
Speaker 2: Yeah. So one example would be Alice Hoe. So she's
Speaker 2: the youngest daughter of Stanley Ho, the casino Magnet and Macau.
Speaker 2: So she has a very very cosmopolitan upbringing. She grew
Speaker 2: up in Hong Kong, she went to boarding school in
Speaker 2: the UK, she did High University and MIT, and then
Speaker 2: later went to Shanghai Universe for the Stutsman Scholarship. So
Speaker 2: she kind of kind of represents this very uh the
Speaker 2: epitome kind of of the cosmopolitan not bringing these people
Speaker 2: have I love to rich cultures, to cultures, region to
Speaker 2: region and people to people and book.
Speaker 1: That's Alice Hoe speaking at a conference in Reat, Saudi
Speaker 1: Arabia in October.
Speaker 2: And she's chosen after graduation to live on the mainline
Speaker 2: for the first time in her life. So she's based
Speaker 2: in Beijing right now, and she is the chief youth
Speaker 2: officer of this climate advocacy group called the Global Alliance
Speaker 2: of Universities and Climate Allow Me to introduce the Climax
Speaker 2: campaign where young people will come together. So you can
Speaker 2: kind of see her flying around all over the world
Speaker 2: to climate conferences, including COP twenty seven, and she's done
Speaker 2: a lot of work in youth at vocacy. You know,
Speaker 2: she doesn't talk about jee politics at all, so I
Speaker 2: think for her, climate advocacy is something that rises above
Speaker 2: geopolitical tensions.
Speaker 1: So, Selena, we've now got these young, super rich Chinese
Speaker 1: coming back to the main life, even before they've started
Speaker 1: careers in the US. What are the consequences of that?
Speaker 2: The world's getting first and foremost more estranged to China,
Speaker 2: a lot less contact and understanding compared to previous generations. Ironically,
Speaker 2: even though you know now travel globalization is obviously more advanced.
Speaker 2: And secondly, I think and a more important impact is
Speaker 2: that Chinese have a more negative image of America, especially
Speaker 2: young Chinese, with the notable exception of Chinese students who've
Speaker 2: actually studied abroad America, so everyone else generally has more
Speaker 2: anti American stands. And that's really worrying because on the
Speaker 2: American side, with few and a few Chinese students studying
Speaker 2: there and deciding to live there and take their roots
Speaker 2: there you kind of see a growing lack of understanding,
Speaker 2: and that's going to be a huge issue for how
Speaker 2: Chinese society is going to function and what kind of
Speaker 2: domestic reactions they have to geopolitics globally.
Speaker 1: Selena, I like to pull the lens back a little bit. Now,
Speaker 1: there was a time when interest in China among American
Speaker 1: students was really high. The Chinese government even funded more
Speaker 1: than one hundred of these Confucius institutes at US universities
Speaker 1: to teach Mandarin and Chinese culture, and nearly all of
Speaker 1: those institutes have now closed. Are we also seeing waning
Speaker 1: interest of China in the US.
Speaker 2: Unfortunately we are. So it's quite concerning because this trend
Speaker 2: is not just happening, you know, in the US, but
Speaker 2: also in China. So as a bilateral pattern. Years ago,
Speaker 2: you could see people in America wanting to learn Chinese.
Speaker 2: You know, there are a lot of people traveling to China,
Speaker 2: moving to China, doing a grad trip in China after college.
Speaker 2: I haven't worked there permanently. So they have helped to
Speaker 2: bridge the two nations just as much as their Chinese
Speaker 2: counterparts have. But now the numbers are really just dwindling.
Speaker 1: A decade ago, there were nearly fifteen thousand US students
Speaker 1: in China. Today there are only three hundred and fifty
Speaker 1: those numbers from the State Department. It's like a ninety
Speaker 1: eight percent.
Speaker 2: Draw, and that could make it tough to train the
Speaker 2: next generation of diplomat.
Speaker 1: We need to have the next generation of China experts
Speaker 1: for our entire government, and of course, the declining number
Speaker 1: of American students in China makes the US something of
Speaker 1: a black box to many ordinary Chinese too. Exactly, that's
Speaker 1: it for today's show. This episode was produced by Young Young.
Speaker 1: Blake Maples is our sound engineer. Caitlin Kenny is our editor.
Speaker 1: Thanks to Marufo Hossein for production help. Sage Bauman is
Speaker 1: Bloomberg's head of podcast. Thanks for listening.