Taipei, Taiwan – As Shanghai’s strict lockdown grinds towards its second month, expatriate residents are heading for the exits, a trend that in the long term could threaten the city’s status as a global business hub.
The government’s draconian restrictions have prompted rare rebukes from foreign business groups and resulted in the United States ordering all non-emergency staff at its consulate to evacuate.
The British Chamber of Commerce has estimated that international schools are on track to lose 40 percent of their staff by the time the upcoming school year gets under way.
In an online survey targeted at expats earlier this month, 85 percent of the almost 1,000 respondents said they were considering leaving China due to their experience of the lockdown.
“This has been a long time coming,” Alex Duncan, founder of Shanghai-based marketing startup KAWO, told Al Jazeera. “There has been a huge exodus growing since…
