China looks to boost middle class as it wraps up Xi Jinping’s anti-poverty drive
- China’s ruling Communist Party wants to ‘significantly expand’ the number of middle-income earners by 2035 to continue strong economic growth
- Boosting its middle-income group will also help Beijing implement its new ‘dual circulation’ economic strategy by unlocking domestic demand
The Communist Party has not specified the target in its 2035 vision – vowing only to “significantly expand the middle income group” – but the message is clear among top policymakers: China must increase its middle class to avoid the middle income trap, where a developing country’s growth stagnates because of structural obstacles that impede development.
Boosting the number of middle-income earners would also help the government implement its new “dual circulation” economic strategy that focuses on developing the domestic market to offset external uncertainty.
Officially about 400 million Chinese are categorised as middle income, which is generally defined by the National Bureau of Statistics as a family of three earning between 100,000 yuan (US$15,200) to 500,000 yuan annually, though the definition is not always consistent.
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Demand for professional home cleaning services growing rapidly among China’s middle class
That represents less than a third of China’s total population. Japan counts two thirds of its population as middle income and the US about a half.