Xi Jinping's Rising Power Forces China's Wealthiest To 'Execute Their Fire Escape Plans'

China's wealthiest are pulling the trigger on exit plans amid rising pessimism building on the future of the world's second-largest economy after Xi Jinping clinched another five-year term for himself as the country's top leader.

What Happened: Xi getting re-elected for the third term is a tipping point for Beijing's business elite, who thrived for decades as the country's economy boomed, David Lesperance, a Europe-based lawyer who has worked with some of the richest clients in Hong Kong and China, told the Financial Times.

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"Now that ‘the chairman' is firmly in place . . . I have already received three ‘proceed' instructions from various ultra-high net worth Chinese business families to execute their fire escape plans," Lesperance said.

Kia Meng Loh, a Singapore-based senior partner at Dentons Rodyk, also told the publication that Hong Kong, a long-favored investment destination for China's wealthy-elite families, had become less attractive after Xi's increased control over the territory.

He added that there was an unprecedented amount of inquiries for setting up "family offices" in the city-state "for months."

"The clients I work with saw [Xi's] third term as a foregone conclusion much earlier than this week," Loh said.

This came just days after Xi, in his report at the 20th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party, signaled robust regulation and tighter curbs on the way wealth is accumulated in China. 

"We will keep income distribution and the means of accumulating wealth well-regulated," Xi said. "We will protect lawful income, adjust excessive income and prohibit illicit income."

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