Sure, when I first decided to move (well, let’s say “travel” that became “live”) in China I knew it wasn’t going to be easy. And starting out in 2007 I for sure didn’t expect to be writing this blog post in late 2016 as a husband to a Chinese wife and father to 2 kids, living in Shenzhen. But like anything in life we need to keep an open mind and treat it like an adventure, a story book.
Well, Donald Trump is now our (my) president. And while it isn’t official until mid January – he is already preparing. And he seems to be pushing some buttons with the Chinese government.
I remember back when Google tried to push the buttons of China by un-filtering Google China’s search results (9999). Did they expect to change China? Well, whatever they thought, it definitely ended their relationship here.
We can say what we want about Donald Trump, but he does have guts. He is shaking things up around the world and maybe this is …. A needed shake up? I’m keeping an open mind for the next 4 years and try to not get too political.
Yet my big concern – well I have to think worst case – is, something finally sparks some … big event. I won’t use the W-A-R word too casually – and I’m not a historian – but from my times in history class, I remember small things sparked big events.
So as a husband and a father, of course I need to think of “worst case”. If something catastrophic were to happen, there are a couple options
1. Move back to America. Sure, this is an option any citizen of a home country has – to return where they came from.
2. Move to Hong Kong. A bit of an easier physical move – right across from Shenzhen we have the SAR of Hong Kong. Wonder how HK would play a role in such a tragic world event.
My first option would be to try to go to Hong Kong. Probably couldn’t take my father in law as there are limits on the amount of dependents you can take into HK from China (or anywhere) – so it would be the wife and kids. Probably keep costs lower and live in the New Territories, continue to blog and podcast and video cast from my home office.
It would be very, scary time.
Maybe there could be a third option, like South East Asia – say Thailand. Seems more neutral as well, but having a couple kids and traveling around so frantically would be challenging.
Anyway, just brainstorming outlaid what worst case scenario would be. And another “excuse” why living outside of your own home country it is sometimes hard to make long term investments and plans.