China's footloose rich on the move

The South Beauty chief Zhang Lan, a businesswoman known for her high-end restaurant chains in China and her celebrity daughter-in-law, recently sparked a heated debate on the emigration of rich Chinese after she was found to possess a foreign passport. Many netizens have lashed out at Zhang for her unpatriotic "betrayal".

In 2010, the world was given another sign of the blistering pace of Chinese economic development. That year, according to the "Hurun Rich List," China boasted the highest number of billionaires in the world.

Yet just a year later, in October of 2011, the Hurun Report had some not so good news for China. A survey conducted by the Hurun Report and the Bank of China showed that 46 percent of the Chinese millionaires - individuals whose net worth exceeded $1.6 million - were considering leaving China. Moreover, this survey and another conducted by China Merchants Bank and the Bain & Company show that the richest Chinese are the most likely to emigrate.