CCP Is Like ‘A Leech': Businessman Flees China to Get Away From Totalitarian Regime

Hu Dewang, a former businessman who recently fled China, in Los Angeles, Calif., on July 19, 2023. (Ma Shang’en/The Epoch Times)

A Chinese businessman who suffered financial losses in China recently began a new life in the United States. He told The Epoch Times that Beijing’s arbitrary policies and totalitarian rule made his life difficult.

“In China, I had always felt that there was a huge leech on my body, sucking blood from me,” said Hu Dewang, who immigrated from China to the United States in June. He referred to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) as the “leech” that sucked his business dry.

Mr. Hu has now settled down in Los Angeles, California.

He is from China’s eastern Anhui Province, home to successful entrepreneurs before the CCP ruled the country. He left home to work in southern Shenzhen city when he was 19.

At the age of 20, Mr. Hu was employed at Hong Kong- and Taiwan-funded factories and trading enterprises. In 2011, when he was 29, he established a shoemaking factory, and a few years later, he set up an e-commerce business.

But he had to close down the factory and online shoe store due to the CCP’s randomly changing policies, Mr. Hu told the Chinese language edition of The Epoch Times in an interview on July 30.

Closure of Shoe Factory

In 2011, with the help of his friends, Mr. Hu set up a shoe manufacturing factory in Wenling city in China’s eastern Zhejiang Province.

Wenling is one of the major manufacturing hubs in China. Its shoemaking industry was once one of its pillar industries. Over 1.2 billion pairs of shoes were made in Wenliang in 2011, accounting for 10 percent of the total output in China in the year, according to state-run Zhejiang News.

Mr. Hu’s company also saw its revenues double yearly in five years. His employees increased from five to over 20.

In 2015, Mr. Hu said the local government forced him to move his factory into a high-tech park, where he would be charged higher fees and more taxes.

A worker pulls a pair of shoes from a production line in a factory located in Chengdu, China. (China Photos/Getty Images)

“The local government said that the move was due to safety concerns, but the authorities forced business owners [to move to the high-tech park] from other localities,” said Mr. Hu, adding that the local government was just trying to make more money from these businesses.

“Factory rental fees skyrocketed from less than $10,000 to more than $30,000 per month,” said Mr. Hu.

In addition to the high rent, he had to pay extra fees for equipment, facilities, and resources. “With all the extra expenses included, the monthly costs of the factory were over $100,000 per month, which exceeded my budget.”

He said that he didn’t want to risk going bankrupt. So he decided to close down the factory and turned to e-commerce.

A document by the Wenling municipal government published in 2021, titled “Wenling City’s 13th Five-Year Industrial Layout Planning,” states that from 2016 to 2020, the city had “significantly accelerated the pace of industrial layout adjustment,” setting up four high-tech parks for various industries. According to the document, three high-tech parks were designated for manufacturing electric machinery, spare parts of automobiles and motorcycles, shoes, and apparel, among other things. The preparation of these adjustments began in 2015, the document says.

Pandemic and Post-COVID

In 2015, after closing his shoemaking factory, Mr. Hu set up an online shoe store that initially depended on his previous customers.

“I was 33 years old at the time, which was a good age to start a business, as I was more mature and experienced.”

Mr. Hu was hopeful for his new e-commerce business and worked hard. In the first year, he earned roughly $15,000, gradually increasing and entering into a positive business cycle until the COVID-19 pandemic hit in 2020.

Before the pandemic, over 60 percent of his orders were from foreign customers. The lockdowns caused delays in logistics, resulting in a significant decline in overseas orders, Mr. Hu said. He turned to the domestic market for business opportunities.

A general view shows a road during a COVID-19 lockdown in the Pudong district of Shanghai, China, on May 30, 2022. (Liu Jin/AFP via Getty Images)

However, Mr. Hu incurred significant financial losses in 2022.

“Shanghai was locked down suddenly in April 2022, and the pandemic restrictions were constant in the city,” Mr. Hu said.

Other cities also implemented the CCP’s draconian zero-COVID policy, and more cities were locked down in the second half of 2022. “When a metropolitan like Shanghai has been locked down, no other city can escape such policies,” he said.

Half of his domestic orders could not be shipped out due to the strict lockdowns, making it difficult to clear out inventory. So he began selling his shoes at discounted prices.

“The result was that the more shoes I sold, the more losses I suffered. But there was no other way out if I didn’t sell them,” Mr. Hu said.

The abrupt lifting of the lockdowns didn’t bring him any luck. In 2022 alone, Mr. Hu said he suffered a loss of about $80,000.

“Many businesses went bankrupt,” Mr. Hu said.

He closed down his e-commerce shoe company earlier this year to avoid more losses and left China.

‘China Is Bad Soil for Businesses’

Mr. Hu believes the CCP’s rule makes China unsuitable for growing businesses.

“Doing business is like sowing a seed. You need to have rich soil, the sun, and water for the seed to grow,” Mr. Hu said.

“With the direct interference by the CCP using its policies, China is bad soil for businesses.

“I was careful in my business dealings, and I had been working hard throughout the years without taking any vacations,” Mr. Hu said. “Yet I was unable to survive in China.”

He accused Beijing of randomly imposing various restrictions on businesses, making them difficult to grow. And even if a company becomes successful, the regime can take away its wealth, he added.

Without the CCP’s interference, Mr. Hu believes he could have done better with his businesses.

“The U.S. is better than China: I work and get paid.

“I had little understanding [of the CCP] when I was in China,” Mr. Hu said, adding that the three years of zero-COVID restrictions made him see the true nature of the CCP.

Yang Yang and Ma Shang'en contributed to this report.