Shanghai Is Finished: No Foreigners at Shanghai Trade Fair or Foreigner Street, Rent Plummets 60%

As China's largest economic and financial center, Shanghai was consecutively ranked as the most attractive city for foreign talents in China for eight years. People from all over the world used to live, work, and even get married and raise families here. Early 2022 data indicated that approximately 460,000 foreigners from 47 countries lived in Shanghai. The city welcomed over 2 million temporary foreign visitors each year, and the number of work permits issued to foreign elites exceeded 50,000. According to the Bureau of Statistics, by the end of August 2021, Shanghai had attracted more than $270 billion in foreign investment, housing 61,090 foreign enterprises.
But this situation was first disrupted by the three-year COVID-19 pandemic. Especially in March of last year, the humanitarian disaster caused by the lockdown of Shanghai led to a significant number of foreigners choosing to flee and expressing their reluctance to return. Subsequent geopolitical tensions and the uncertainty arising from such events followed. Especially when China's newly revised "Counter-Espionage Law" came into effect on July 1st, expanding its scope to include broader interpretations of violating national security standards and granting the government more power in conducting searches, detentions, and implementing personal travel bans. This has left foreign residents in China feeling even more unsafe.

Many foreign investors now feel that the conditions for long-term investment in China are no longer as favorable as before and have chosen to withdraw. This, in turn, has affected the willingness of foreigners to live in Shanghai. As a result, the city's foreign population is visibly decreasing. The following video shares a Shanghai resident's true feelings.
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