Lauren Goode: What is an example of this?
Louise Matsakis: For example, some Chinese influencers have spread conspiracy theories that Indians are planning to utilize visas for mass immigration to China.
Lauren Goode: Captivating. You have both been involved in business and labor in China for years. Was this reaction surprising to you?
Zeyi Yang: I would say yes, but also no. No, because I know that China has never been a country of immigrants, so the idea of bringing a lot of foreign talent into this country and giving them some kind of preferential treatment over others will certainly cause public outrage. I’m sure it’s this part. The thing is, I feel like after China has been trying to open up to the world for several decades, I expected the Chinese to be a little more patient because China also wants to be the leader in AI in this century. Right now, the only model they can follow is the United States, which is using its abundance of immigrant talent to build an artificial intelligence industry. So I thought maybe this kind of political orientation would push them through the xenophobic obstacles we see, but unfortunately that doesn’t seem to have happened.
Lauren Goode: So this presents some cultural challenges. That is, what other challenges do you think China faces in trying to implement the K visa and attract foreign talent?
Louise Matsakis: I mean, I think the most vital thing is that China, as Zeyi said, is absolutely not a country of immigrants. In 2020, foreigners made up only about 0.1% of the continent’s population. It is also worth noting that these estimates include people from Taiwan, Macau and Hong Kong. These are places very culturally similar to China. So the number of people coming from Africa, North America or Europe is just astonishingly tiny compared to the size of China’s population. In the USA, approximately 15% of the country’s inhabitants are immigrants. That’s a huge difference. That’s why I think it can be arduous for newcomers to adapt. It’s a arduous language. There is a completely different ecosystem of apps and programs that you need to utilize. I remember when I first went on a business trip to China, I needed a receipt for my expenses and thought, “Can you email me a PDF of your receipt?” And the people in the hotel looked at me like I was crazy. And they said, “We’ll send it via WeChat.” And I said, “Oh.” There are a lot of little things like that that are really different, whereas over the last few decades, American culture companies and American technology companies have been so ubiquitous in the rest of the world that someone who comes to the US from India or from Europe is likely to be using the same email platforms and the same social media networks. Many business norms are similar, right? Of course, there are still cultural differences. And if these people feel homesick, they will be able to find an immigrant community wherever they go. They can find food that reminds them of home. This is not necessarily the case in China. Therefore, I believe that the idea of a city like Shanghai or Beijing becoming a truly cosmopolitan center with a mixture of different cultures is still very distant. I think it could happen, and I think it’s likely that it will happen as global power turns away from the United States. I think in a time when we don’t make many good choices and don’t make many friends around the world, it’s certainly possible, but China is just starting from a very different place than a city like San Francisco.