A new study highlights the gap between the number of qualified personnel leaving China compared to those settling here. In its Annual Report on Chinese International Migration for 2014, the Beijing-based think tank the Center for China and Globalization says more than 9 million Chinese nationals have emigrated in the past 23 years, taking with them billions of dollars in assets along with their technical know-how.

To discuss that report I'm joined by my colleague Wu Haojun.

Q1: Haojun, some alarming figures there. Give us more details as well as the context on that.

Wu: Sure. First, to provide a bit of a historical context here, let’s take a look at this graph. As you can see, back in 1990, there were about four million Chinese nationals working and living overseas, compared to 376,000 foreign nationals living in China, resulting in a gap of 3.7 million. Looking at the figures now, the number of foreign nationals living in China increased marginally, while the number of Chinese emigrants ballooned, widening the gap to 8.5 million.The US was identified as the top destination for Chinese emigrants. Many people were found to be literally buying their way into the US. In 2012, 6,124 Chinese nationals moved to the United States as investment immigrants. And China has become the second largest foreign buyer of property in the US. Chinese people bought 12.3 billion dollars worth of property in the US from March 2012 to March 2013. That’s certainly a lot of houses.

Q2: That’s quite a lot of money leaving the country... But what about the majority of people who are not billionaires, how are they pursuing their dreams abroad?

Wu: Well, nowadays money can buy you a spot in pretty much any country in the world, but there are other ways. In fact the report says Chinese emigrants were concentrated in the 35 to 55 age group of middle-income earners. In other words, they’re mostly skilled professionals.The main reasons identified for them leaving China included education for their children and, unsurprisingly, health concerns stemming from the pollution here.And the report also pointed to an interesting trend.. we’re seeing more and more skilled blue-collar workers leaving China for jobs abroad. By blue-collar workers, here I mean pipeline workers, welders, carpenters, and so on. In 2012, half a million of them left China to seek work overseas, most of them to countries like Australia and Canada.