The topic of “China’s GNI at US$9,732 in 2018” had attracted over 200 million followers on Weibo as of Wednesday morning, with many commentators questioning “why am I not that rich?” or “why is my income way below that figure?”

And the sheer volume of comments forced the NBS to publish an explanation on Tuesday night to address the issue, as it noted that GNI per capita is always higher than disposal income per capita, stressing that China remains “the world’s largest developing country”.

The incident highlighted the sensitivity of Chinese consumers to income issues, and came as Beijing is trying to reconcile two self-imposed, sometimes conflicting, identifies. On the one hand, Beijing is telling its people that China is richer and stronger under Communist rule, but it is also saying it remains a poor and developing country that merits special treatment in trade deals and requires people to work hard to help the country progress.

A Chinese official, who declined to be named, told the South China Morning Post that Beijing is facing a delicate task of portraying a powerful country for the 70th anniversary of the People’s Republic of China this year without overplaying the image or inviting scrutiny from other countries.

“We need to highlight the achievements in the last 70 years to rally national pride, but we can’t overplay the tune to cause situations such as Amazing China,” the official said, referring to the Chinese documentary film aired in early 2018.

Amazing China highlighted China’s achievements in science, technology and even military affairs since President Xi Jinping came to power in 2012, and was shown in cinemas across the country before being removed by Beijing in late April as it was widely seen as exaggerating China’s strength, fermenting a fear about China’s rise in Washington.

The official said that China’s wide wealth gap and deep social divide has also complicated Beijing’s efforts of promoting a monolithic image of a rising China in the right way.

“People with different knowledge structures, income levels or social status have completely different reaction to the same message,” the official said.

The statistics agency’s comment about China’s GNI is a straightforward description of the number released by the World Bank earlier this year.

China’s nominal gross national income per capita grew by 9.7 per cent in 2018, according to the World Bank, indicating the world’s second largest economy is gradually heading towards the top end of the middle-income range and could graduate into the high-income bracket within three to four years if it can maintain the current pace despite the impact of the trade war with the United States. The World Bank shows China’s GNI per capita increased 5.1 per cent in 2017 to US$8,630.

The International Monetary Fund estimated that China’s GNI was US$9,608 in 2018.

The World Bank defined middle income countries as those with GNI per capita income of between US$1,006 and US$12,235, with China falling within the upper end of the upper middle-income bracket, which are those countries with a GNI per capita of between US$3,956 and US$12,235.

According to the World Bank, China’s GNI per capita placed it just behind Turkey and Russia but ahead of Mexico, Brazil and Thailand, although its is still less than a sixth of the US.

GNI per capita is the value of a country’s final income in a year, divided by its population, and is meant to reflect the average income of the country’s citizens.

China is looking to avoid the so-called middle income trap, a development stage where a country attains a certain level of income but then stagnates and remains at the same level because it cannot progress from low-cost manufacturing into hi-technology industries.

Many developing Latin American countries have fallen into the middle income trap, while some developing Asian countries, including South Korea and Taiwan, have moved into the higher bracket.

In 2014, President Xi said that China will definitely overcome the middle-income trap, with a move forward key to not only China’s economy and social stability, but also the global economy as a whole. However, even though China’s GNI per capita is approaching the threshold of a high-income country, it remains to be seen whether Beijing can put its growth on a sustainable track, analysts said.

Raymond Yeung, chief Greater China economist of ANZ Bank, said China still faces a series of challenges, including a rapidly ageing population, an unbalanced domestic economic structure, as well as increasingly hostile relations with the US, while at the same time, suggesting China’s growth is entering a new stage.

“The export-driven growth is now close to its end, to give way to a new one driven by consumption and innovation,” Yeung said.

In the “China 2030” study, a research collaboration between the World Bank and the Development Research Centre of the State Council, the world’s second largest economy was advised to find new growth drivers, including increased efficiency in input use, higher human capital investments, increased innovation, and a shift to high-value services.