Lots of people used to go to China for work and could do pretty much anything they want, but since Jinping took over it went downhill fast.
Most people in the expat community I know went to Hong Kong and Singapore instead for the following reasons:
1) Easy to do business
2) Easy to get your money in and out.
3) Low taxes
4) Central travel hubs in Asia
5) Less backwards mindset as these cities feel more cosmopolitan and are interconnected with the outside world
With HK having less and less freedom, Singapore is really the only choice for foreigners to have a decent life quality in Asia. Tokyo could potentially be an option too, but it's really hard to live there due the very different structures in Japanese society and taxes are pretty high.
HK, it seems, doesn’t have the death penalty or corporal punishment. Let’s see how long that lasts, but for the time being that’s a huge positive over Singapore.
Expat life is still pretty nice. Soho is bustling. Restaurants are reopening, clubs open to 6am.
Stuff like SVB, CS, and flow on effect to legal is probably just a big an impact.
You are not going to get the death penalty or caning in Singapore if you keep your nose clean (literally and figuratively). Both are only applied for serious crimes, and the few deltas to Western standards on what counts as "serious" (drugs, vandalism) are easily avoided.
On the other hand, HK now has years of imprisonment if you speak the wrong thing. Expats probably less directly affected, but freedom of speech is essential to financial success and the local economy will never recover.
IMO, Hong Kong's number 1 problem is that its unique position as the gateway to China has faded away, both the role as an intermediary and as a key shipping port.
Clean air, clean environment, safety, access to nature, food safety, (mostly) free/uncensored internet, easy to do business, easy to do daily things, good public transportation, safety, good medical system, not a lot of corruption.
There's other things as well, but the above things are quite important to me. Your mile may vary though :-)
Most people in the expat community I know went to Hong Kong and Singapore instead for the following reasons: 1) Easy to do business 2) Easy to get your money in and out. 3) Low taxes 4) Central travel hubs in Asia 5) Less backwards mindset as these cities feel more cosmopolitan and are interconnected with the outside world
With HK having less and less freedom, Singapore is really the only choice for foreigners to have a decent life quality in Asia. Tokyo could potentially be an option too, but it's really hard to live there due the very different structures in Japanese society and taxes are pretty high.