A survey from the Center for China & Globalization (CCG) has indicated that 9.34 million Chinese have emigrated in the past 23 years, ranking China at number four in the world, compared to number seven in 1990.

Chinese people with investable assets of over 6 million yuan (US$0.991 million) processed about 33 trillion yuan (US$5.45 trillion) of assets in 2011. Of these assets, 2.8 trillion yuan (US$0.46) went overseas, equal to approximately 3 percent of China's GDP in 2011. China's Hong Kong, the United States and Canada were the major destinations of their overseas assets, at 22, 21 and 16 percent respectively, according to the survey.

"In recent years, 'investment emigration' has made up a larger part of China's overseas emigration wave," said Wang Huiyao, director of CCG.

Chinese investor emigrations to the United States have increased rapidly in the past three years. There were 772 people who received EB-5 investor green cards in 2010. The number leapt to 2,408 in 2011. Latest data from the US Department of State showed that in 2012, 6,124 people got EB-5 investor green cards.

Meanwhile, overseas real estate investment has skyrocketed. According to data from CCG, Chinese people have been the second largest group of overseas buyers in the American housing market since 2011. Chinese buyers also account for 20 - 40 percent of the overseas investors in popular cities for property investment such as London and Toronto.