There will be 200 million Chinese become “middle-class” consumers in the coming five years official of China State Information Center recently pointed out in Shenzhen.
The official explained that the so-called “middle class” refers to the groups of persons who have a stable income, capable to purchase apartments and cars, and have disposable money to spend on tours and education, etc.
As sources say, “middle class” is in the majority of the western world that ranks in the middle of the community. In developed countries, persons of middle-class account for 80 percent of the total population. Therefore, it has a synonym as the “masses”. In this comparison, even though the middle-class people in China reaches 200 million, its proportion is still very small in the total population.
Besides, according to Wenhui Daily, the reform and opening-up of China’s inland in the past 20 years actually means a course of re-allocating the economic resources of the society. During this process great changes have happened in the allocation pattern between individuals. The change is not only a result of the subjective consequence of policy orientation, but also an objective demand in the transition period of the economic system. A new group of rich people has gradually come into being which draws much attention of the society.
With high-income phenomenon as a study subject the Investigation Team of Urban Social Economy of China National Bureau of Statistics carried out a questionnaire survey on 9,956 high-income families in Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin, Chongqing, Zhejiang, Guangdong, Yunnan, Shaanxi, Hubei and Liaoning in July 2000.
The result shows persons in charge of enterprises and institutions and professional technicians account for over half of the high-salaried group in the cities. Professional technicians rank second, accounting for 25.2 percent. People may still have a fresh memory about the problem of “distinctive difference between mental and manual labor” as a hot topic just several years ago, however, the proportion of professional technicians in the high-income group in urban areas has increased remarkably as a result from the rapid development of knowledge economy and the marketization of technology.
(21dnn.com 07/22/2001)
