South China Morning Post (SCMP) reported on Thursday (15 Dec 2022) that a new wave of wealthy mainland Chinese emigrants is eyeing to immigrate to Singapore.
Wealthy Chinese see Singapore as a safe haven to park their money while offering them relative freedom, a safe environment as well as a pro-business and low-tax climate such as the absence of inheritance tax.
Singapore is also a relatively short-flight home, and Mandarin is widely spoken in the country.
It’s no wonder there has been a sharp increase in investment and migration enquiries on Singapore from China, reported SCMP.
Immigration consulting firm Henley & Partners estimated that this year alone, some 10,000 wealthy Chinese will be leaving China.
Many of the rich Chinese are setting up family offices in Singapore. More than 700 family offices were established in Singapore last year, while the figure was just 50 in 2018, according to The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS).
Assets under management in Singapore grew from S$4.7 trillion last year to S$5.4 trillion this year.
According to a source cited by SCMP, more than 600 applications are currently awaiting approval. Over half of these are from rich Chinese families, including those who have stored their wealth in Hong Kong over the past few years.
A mainland Chinese woman, Zhang, already has her son studying in Singapore. Her husband, who has a car painting business in Guangdong, was reluctant to move the family to Singapore at first because he was bullish about the Chinese market. But he changed his mind recently.
“We will be reunited soon, but unlike at first, Singapore is no longer a transit country for our son, but a permanent home,” said Zhang.
“A sluggish domestic market, escalating lockdowns against Covid-19, depreciating properties and the [weak] yuan are all eating away at our wealth, as well as tighter tax scrutiny ahead,” Zhang said.
The family plans to sell their three properties in China next year, which are worth about 15 million yuan (US$2.1 million), and then relocate to Singapore, where they hope to become citizens and start a business.
“We like Singapore’s multi-cultural society, and it’s also friendly to Chinese,” said Zhang.
Even Chinese students studying at Singapore universities are looking to stay, said Mei Lingchuan, who is studying for an MBA in Singapore.
“Many of our Chinese alumni who graduated in previous years actually want to come back to work and live here,” he revealed.
Allen Wang, a partner at an overseas education consultancy in Shanghai, said enquiries about studying in Singapore have been surging since spring after the two-month lockdown of Shanghai.
“When they decide to leave the chaos and unpredictability behind, Singapore is their top choice,” said Wang.
Meanwhile, native Singaporeans had to serve National Service to protect the new citizens.
First-generation new citizens are usually exempted by the government from serving in National Service.
Minister of Defence, Ng Eng Hen, in his reply to Non-constituency Member of Parliament, Leong Mun Wai, shared that about 57% of new male citizens are below 30 years old when they receive their citizenship. Of these, about 70% are below 18 years old, and the remaining 30% are between 18 and 30 years old.
New male citizens who stayed in Singapore when young and enjoyed economic and social benefits are enlisted when they reach 18 years of age or older.
Males who receive citizenship as mature adults, typically in their 30s and 40s, are not enlisted for NS, as they are not suitable for full-time National Service (NS) at that age and did not enjoy any benefits prior to their citizenship.
In 2021, about 2,500 citizens by registration and 2,000 PRs enlisted for full-time NS.
All male Singapore citizens and Permanent Residents (PRs) are liable for NS once they turn 13 years of age, even if they are not residing in Singapore at that point in time. They will be enlisted at the earliest opportunity on reaching 18 years old.
NS defaulters for two to six years are expected to face a jail term of two to four months, while those who dodge NS for seven to 10 years face a sentence of five to eight months’ jail. For those who evade NS for 11 to 16 years, they face a jail term of 14 to 22 months, while who do so for at least 17 years may be jailed between 24 months and 36 months.
Recently, National Serviceman Full-time (NSF) firefighter Corporal Edward Go, 19, died tragically while fighting a fire in a rental flat at Henderson Road. He had aspirations to enrol in medical school upon completion of his National Service.
The Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) said he fell unconscious in the kitchen area of the fourth-storey flat. His crew took him out of the unit and tried to resuscitate him before he was taken to Singapore General Hospital, where he was pronounced dead. CPL Go was the first firefighter who died in SCDF’s operation.
It is uncertain if new citizens would allow their sons to serve in National Service in Singapore.
While some have shared that they are ok with having their sons serving to prevent the liability and penalty, those who have other plans for their children think otherwise.
An Australian citizen with a nine-year-old Singaporean son, told Yahoo News Singapore that it is pointless to compel Singaporean males to serve NS if they were to renounce their citizenship and would not be present in Singapore in the event of a war.
“It gets down to the crux of what is the point of…dragging them back (from overseas) to Singapore when they obviously don’t want to live here and putting them through NS, which costs taxpayers’ money, when they are not even going to be there to serve the country.
“If he doesn’t want to live here, don’t make him do NS but take his passport away. It is as simple as that,” he said.
