I know SOME Chinese who emigrated to the West years ago and are now eager to see China fail. How much they want to see China fail seems to be a direct function of how well they are doing in their lives - the more miserable their lives are, the more they want to see China fail.
In the early days, say 20–30 yrs ago, the Chinese who could attend western universities and stayed in the West after graduation were some of the most talented Chinese. They had a sense of superiority over the Chinese who remained in China. They made it. They escaped from the "sh*thole" and arrived in "paradise" while the less talented folks stayed behind.
Now, China has grew tremendously. Many of their classmates, friends, relatives have taken up important and influential positions while they stuck in mid-level jobs in the West due to the bamboo ceiling. One guy commented to me in one of the conversations, "You know, the current vice mayor of Shanghai used to be my classmate in college and I had better scores than he did…"
He was a middle school teacher in the US.
Nothing wrong being a teacher. But I always remember the look on his face - the regret, the envy and the pain of knowing he could have achieved a lot more if he had not left…
The Chinese in China have also become rich. Overseas Chinese used to be able to spend like a millionaire in China 20–30 yrs back.
There used to be those special shops that take only Foreign Exchange Voucher, which was something one needed to purchase with foreign currencies. And usually only foreigners coming to China had the foreign currencies.
What was special about these shops was that they had lots of foreign merchandises that were not seen in regular stores. I still remembered the joy of getting a Panasonic TV from the special store - my Dad earned some dollars when he managed an infrastructure project in Pakistan. The TV was such a pride of the whole family…
Imagine how much look of envy the overseas Chinese would collect when they returned to China for a visit, casually dropping the pictures of their big houses and flashy cars, when everyone in China was riding a bicycle.
Nowadays, Chinese swamped the LV, Gucci and Herme shops in Europe, the US and Japan. A 3-bedroom apt in Shanghai costs 2 million US dollars.
The envy is gone. When they visit China, they are at loss - they don’t know how to use Alipay. They don’t know how to use Wechat. They don’t know all the chic and fashionable places. They look, speak and act like the country bumpkins who are visiting the cities for the first time.
So, why do they want China to fail? Because only when China failed, they could breathe a great sigh of relief - they made the right choices of staying in the West after all…
PS: The same can be said of many, not all, Taiwanese and HKers.