China in The Year of the Rat – 2020
By the next time the year of the Rat comes around, 2020, China expects that half of the country will be middle class.
Of city dwellers, 78%.
Country folk – 30%.
Middle class in China is defined as having between Y60,000 and Y200,000 annual salary. $8,200 – $25,000ish.
China wants to quadruple the per capita income of $1,500 recorded last year.
"A growing middle-income population will ensure more people benefit from reform so that it is in turn endorsed and supported by more people," says the VP of the
Communist Party's central policy research office.
The larger middle class is expected to challenge the government to provide better:
1. social security
2. services
3. education
It is said that some 400 million Chinese have been lifted out of poverty since 1980.
If 55% are middle class by 2020, that leaves 45% somewhere else. 45% will be what, about 600 million?
China has a long way to go.
Can China ever gets its massive population out of poverty?
Leave a comment!