The fact that a large number of people support Chai, which is not for her celebrity status but out of their respect for her rights, serves as a testimony of such an improved social openness and tolerance.

Second, despite China’s fast economic expansion in the past three decades, the world’s second-largest economy needs to do more to improve social confidence. For example, some Chinese believe the domestic college entrance exams are too competitive — which they believe is unnecessary — so that they would like to send their children to the US to receive their education.

Moreover, given China’s incomplete social security system, some people want to migrate to have access to the social security benefits of other countries.

A 2013 survey by real estate website Soufun.net found that more than 40 percent of the 5,000 respondents said they would emigrate overseas for better living conditions; another 35 percent for better education conditions for children, according to a report by the Atlantic website.

What is more stunning is that 46 percent of the 980 millionaires surveyed in 18 Chinese cities in 2011 were considering leaving China, according to the Hurun Report, an annual publication listing China’s top rich, which is published by independent publisher Rupert Hoogewerf.

If they move abroad, they would take away large amounts of capital with them. But what is more worrisome is that such mass departure may dent social confidence in the country’s future.

To reverse the trend, the country urgently needs to take more forceful measures to create a more favourable environment for doing business, crack down on corruption, improve the judicial system, build a more accommodative social security system, and improve its education system, among others.

It takes time for China to make substantial headway in achieving those tasks, none of which is easy to accomplish. But as it improves, more people would opt to stay.