More than one-third of US workers are remote for at least part of the week
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BANGKOK — Shortly after China opened its borders with the end of “zero-COVID,” Zhang Chuannan lost her job as an accountant at a cosmetic firm in Shanghai and decided to explore the world.

“The cosmetics business was bleak,” said Zhang, 34, because everyone wore face masks during the pandemic. After being laid off, she paid $1,400 for an online Thai course, got an education visa and moved to the scenic northern Thai city of Chiang Mai.

Zhang is among a growing number of young Chinese moving overseas not necessarily because of ideological reasons but to escape the country’s ultra-competitive work culture, family pressures and limited opportunities after living in the country under the strict pandemic policies for three years. Southeast Asia has become a popular destination given its proximity, relatively inexpensive cost of living and tropical scenery.

There are no exact data on the number of young Chinese moving overseas since the country ended pandemic restrictions and reopened its borders. But on the popular Chinese social media platform Xiaohongshu, hundreds of people have discussed their decisions to relocate to Thailand. Many get a visa to study Thai while figuring out their next steps.

At Payap University in Chiang Mai, around 500 Chinese began an online Thai course early this year.

Royce Heng, owner of Duke Language School, a private language institute in Bangkok, said around 180 Chinese inquire each month about visa information and courses.

The hunt for opportunities far from home is partly motivated by China’s unemployment rate for people ages 16 to 24, which rose to a record high of 21.3% in June. The scarcity of good jobs increases pressure to work long hours.

Opting out is an increasingly popular way for younger workers to cope with a time of downward mobility, said Beverly Yuen Thompson, a sociology professor at Siena College in Albany, New York.

“In their 20s and early 30s, they can go to Thailand, take selfies and work on the beach for a few years and feel like they have a great quality of life,” Thomson said. “If those nomads had the same opportunities they hoped for in their home countries, they could just travel on vacation.”

During the pandemic in China, Zhang was cooped up in her Shanghai apartment for weeks at a time. Even when lockdowns were lifted, she feared another COVID-19 outbreak would prevent her from moving around within the country.

“I now value freedom more,” Zhang said.

A generous severance package helped finance her time in Thailand, and she is seeking ways to stay abroad long-term, perhaps by teaching Chinese language online.

Moving to Chiang Mai means waking up in the mornings to bird songs and a more relaxed pace of life. Unlike in China, she has time to practice yoga and meditation, shop for vintage clothes and attend dance classes.

Armonio Liang, 38, left the western Chinese city of Chengdu in landlocked Sichuan province for the Indonesian island of Bali, a popular digital nomad destination. His Web3 social media startup was limited by Chinese government restrictions while his use of cryptocurrency exchange apps drew police harassment.

Moving to Bali gave him greater freedom and a middle-class lifestyle with what might be barely enough money to live on back home.

“This is what I cannot get in China,” said Liang, referring to working on his laptop on the beach and brainstorming with expatriates from around the world. “Thousands of ideas just sprouted up in my mind. I had never been so creative before.”

He also has enjoyed being greeted with smiles.

“In Chengdu, everyone is so stressed. If I smiled at a stranger, they would think I am an idiot,” he said.

Life overseas is not all beach chats and friendly neighbors, though. For most young workers, such stays will be interludes in their lives, Thompson said.

“They can’t have kids, because kids have to go to school,” Thompson said. “They cannot fulfill their responsibilities to their parents. What if their aging parents need help? They eventually will get a full-time job back home and get called back home because of one of those things.”

Zhang said she faces pressure to get married. Liang wants his parents to move to Bali with him.

“It’s a big problem,” Liang said. “They worry they will be lonely after moving out of China and worry about medical resources here.”

Huang Wanxiong, 32, was stranded on Bohol Island in the Philippines for seven months in 2020 when air travel halted during the pandemic. He spent his time learning free diving, which involves diving to great depths without oxygen tanks.

He eventually flew home to the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou but lost his job at a private tutoring company after the government cracked down on the industry in 2021. His next gig was driving more than 16 hours a day for a ride-hailing business.

“I felt like a machine during those days,” Huang said. “I can accept a stable and unchanging life, but I cannot accept not having any hope, not trying to improve the situation and surrendering to fate.”

Huang returned to the Philippines in February, escaping family pressures to get a better job and find a girlfriend in China. He renewed his Bohol Island friendships and qualified as a dive instructor.

But without Chinese tourists to teach and no income, he flew home again in June.

He still hopes to make a living as a diver, possibly back in Southeast Asia, although he also might agree to his parents’ proposal to emigrate to Peru to work in a family-run supermarket.

Huang recalled that he once surfaced too quickly from a 40-meter (131-foot) dive and his hands trembled from a dangerous lack of oxygen, known as hypoxia. The lesson he took was to avoid rushing and maintain a steady climb. Until his next move, he plans to use that free diver discipline to counter the anxieties of living in China.

“I will apply the calm I learned from the sea surrounding that island to my real life,” Huang said. “I will maintain my own pace.”
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The European Union allowed the free trade of Ukrainian crops after Russia invaded. The glut that resulted prompted some EU members to impose a ban on sales, which threatens the flow of the grain to world markets. VOA’s Myroslava Gongadze reports from Warsaw, Poland. VOA footage by Daniil Batushchak
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African countries are investing heavily in trying to attract tourists from the world’s biggest outbound travel market, China, as they battle to recover from losses suffered during the travel bans of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“COVID wiped out large parts of tourism industries, especially in poorer parts of the world like Africa,” said Mike Fabricius, a specialist in tourism management, consulting and marketing for his Johannesburg-based company, The Journey. “Some African countries rely heavily on the foreign exchange that tourists bring in and the money they spend in domestic markets. To lose that for a few years was a heavy, heavy blow.”

In 2019, before the pandemic, the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC) estimated that tourism in Africa had a yearly growth rate of 5% and contributed an average of 8.5% to GDP.

The WTTC said direct investments into the tourism sector were about $29 billion, and that tourism created jobs for 24.3 million direct employees, accounting for 6.4% of Africa’s total working population.

It estimated that COVID-19 travel bans cost Africa at least a third to half of these numbers.

“We saw similar losses across all major African tourism markets,” said Peter Masila, a tourism lecturer at Moi University in Kenya.

Nomasonto Ndlovu, chief operations officer of South African Tourism, said 500,000 jobs were lost in the local tourism sector because of the pandemic.

“We’re confident of a good recovery by end 2024, especially because we’re targeting tourists from a huge market like China,” she said.

In 2019, 155 million Chinese tourists visited foreign destinations.

“It’s true that relatively few chose to come to Africa,” said Ndlovu. “Only 95,000 visited South Africa in 2019. So, we can’t blame COVID entirely for low numbers of Chinese visitors. As far as South Africa’s concerned, we’re now spending a lot of money on new plans and strategies to win more Chinese over, and I know other African countries are doing the same.”

Discounts on airfare

South Africa, Egypt, Kenya and Tanzania are some of the countries now offering more direct flights to China.

Kenya is partnering with Chinese social media platforms and marketing attractions such as the Maasai Mara game reserve on WeChat and TikTok.

Tanzania’s national airline is offering discounts of up to 50% on flights to and from China. Still, the country’s tourism board projects that only 45,000 Chinese will have visited Tanzania by the end of the year.

But Fabricius said African authorities were placing too much emphasis on numbers.

He has worked on tourism projects in China and elsewhere for the United Nations and the World Bank and formulated strategies for global tourism authorities.

“I don’t think Africa’s a place for the mass tourism Chinese market,” said Fabricius.

“The Chinese market has evolved a lot. It used to be thrown in one pot, like the Chinese only travel in big groups and take lots of pictures; they only go to the big places,” he said. “But with a new generation of travelers, there’s no longer such a thing as ‘the Chinese tourist’; it’s become a lot more diversified and segmented.”

Fabricius said the Chinese mass market remained focused on “iconic” international travel destinations, such as New York, Paris and London.

“Africa’s not going to attract that bulk market; it remains a niche destination for the Chinese,” he said. “So, what you want to do is attract Chinese tourists with focused interests in things like culture, wildlife and exploring.”

Rosemary Anderson, chairperson of the FEDHASA organization, which represents hospitality industries across Southern Africa, said continental authorities should indeed be promoting “unique experiences.”

“We have rich cultural assets and diverse experiences” she said. “South Africa, for example, offers every experience imaginable — wildlife safaris, stunning landscapes, vibrant culture and adventure activities. We need to emphasize experiences that are distinctive.”

‘Visa access is essential’

According to Anderson and Fabricius, government inefficiency and complicated visa requirements remain challenges to African efforts to lure Chinese tourists.

“Visa access is essential,” Fabricius said. “It’s no good having all this slick marketing and then your government lets you down by making it hard for the Chinese to get visas.”

Anderson agreed. “Although we (South Africa) have an e-Visa system that accepts applications by Chinese nationals, the process remains cumbersome and is not fully optimized.”

She suggested that marketing initiatives should span both the public and private sectors, ensuring that messaging is targeted to attract diverse budgets, ages, travel interests, preferences and travel motivations.

“We also need to do more to ensure that destination and product information is available on Chinese search engines and marketing on Chinese social media channels, like Weibo and WeChat,” she said.

Fabricius said efforts to attract Chinese visitors should “actually begin at home,” not in Beijing.

“China is Africa’s biggest trade partner, and many thousands of Chinese business travelers are visiting the continent every day,” he said.

“That creates another opportunity: These people who come on a business trip and then after that they tell others about their experiences and that creates a second wave of the leisure travel market,” he said.

This story originated in VOA’s English to Africa Service.
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WASHINGTON – Vietnam is well-positioned to draw U.S. investors seeking to de-risk supply chains now in China, but closer economic integration between Hanoi and Washington appears unlikely to lead to political realignment, according to experts.

Addressing local media in Hanoi during a recent visit, U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen hailed Vietnam as “a key partner” in the effort to reduce dependence on China by expanding manufacturing in the U.S. and with trusted partners.

“Vietnam welcomes the U.S. ‘friendshoring,’ which is beneficial to both countries and contributes to Vietnam’s growth,” Le Dang Doanh, an economist in Hanoi who served as an adviser to the late Prime Minister Vo Van Kiet, told VOA Vietnamese in a phone interview.

Friendshoring is the practice of focusing supply chain networks in countries regarded as political and economic allies.

Carl Thayer, emeritus professor with the University of New South Wales in Australia, said closer economic integration between Vietnam and the U.S. will not lead to Hanoi realigning with Washington against Beijing, he wrote to VOA in an email.

“Vietnam and the United States already have a substantial economic relationship. The further development of this relationship will be based on mutual benefit,” he said. “China is more concerned about Vietnam’s potential security and defense relations with the United States than it is with their bilateral economic relations.”

Beijing, however, is “extremely sensitive to any U.S.-Vietnam economic relationship that undermines China’s interests,” he said, stressing “neither Beijing or Hanoi view economic relations as a zero-sum game.”

Doanh said he has seen a shift of foreign direct investment (FDI) flows from China to Vietnam, especially since trade tensions began increasing between the U.S. and China during the Trump administration. A bilateral trade agreement that came into effect in 2001 facilitated Vietnamese exporting to the U.S., he said.

Vietnam “has no ambition” of attracting U.S. businesses to completely relocate from China given that “they are already well-entrenched there after many years of investment with billions of dollars,” Doanh said.

“Vietnam just expects them to shift parts of their production, which makes it more convenient to export to the U.S.,” he said. “Vietnam continues to attract FDI to match its advantages like cheap, young and productive labor.”

Hanoi, fearing possible retaliation from China, may want to keep Washington at a remove.

“Given the intensifying China-U.S. competition and proximity between China and Vietnam, Hanoi may feel reluctant to formally upgrade its comprehensive partnership with Washington,” said Bich Tran, adjunct fellow at Washington’s Center for Strategic and International Studies, told Reuters in March.

VOA Vietnamese contacted the Vietnamese Ministry of Planning and Investment to seek comments on what Vietnam will do to attract more investment from the U.S. but has yet to receive a response.

Bui Kien Thanh, an economist in Ho Chi Minh City, said Vietnam’s geographic location would give it a competitive edge in any regional competition for U.S. friendshoring.

“As a neighbor of China, Vietnam is a convenient destination for companies seeking to relocate from China,” Thanh told VOA Vietnamese over the phone.

“What’s more, Vietnam is located at the heart of the most populous and the most economically dynamic region of the world, between Northeast and South Asia,” he said.

Estimates of how much of the world’s trade passes through the South China Sea near Vietnam range from about 20% to 30%.

The U.S. currently ranks second to China in terms of value of bilateral trade with Vietnam, which topped almost $139 billion in 2022. And the U.S. is the largest export market for Vietnamese-made textiles, footwear and electronics.

Thanh said Hanoi “is well-disposed to Washington” and “very welcoming to U.S. businesses.” The two countries marked 10 years since the establishment of a Comprehensive Partnership this year.

In her Hanoi speech on July 21, Yellen cited green energy and semiconductor manufacturing as potential sectors for Vietnam to join the global supply chain. In 2021, Amkor, the Arizona-based provider of semiconductor packaging and test services, announced plans to build a smart factory in the northern Bac Ninh Province. Intel has its largest assembly and testing facility in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam’s largest city.

Thanh said that Vietnam “cannot develop its own semiconductor industry without U.S. help,” adding, “If Intel can open its largest facility in Vietnam, other American chip makers can make it too.”
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Кошти від МВФ Київ отримує поступово, коли виконує «критерії ефективності та структурні маяки», визначені фондом
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З 25% до 22%, починаючи з 28 липня
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