China’s ‘common prosperity’ push could boost key middle-class, but action urged to ‘bring back’ confidence
- Xi Jinping pledged to ‘substantially grow’ China’s middle-income group as a share of the total population by 2035 during Sunday’s work report to the 20th party congress
- Analysts have urged greater development of the private economy that accommodates a vast majority of the country’s jobs, growth drivers and revenue
A greater emphasis on wealth distribution and tacking inequality via “common prosperity” could herald fresh efforts to boost China’s middle-class households, but Beijing has been urged to roll-out immediate and concrete measures to restore confidence that has been faltered by almost three years of the coronavirus pandemic.
Xi also emphasised the need to raise the share of personal income and increase the sources of revenue, while acknowledging tough issues, including employment, education, medical services, child and elderly care and housing, should be addressed.
[China] needs to balance the pandemic control and economic growth to bring back investor confidence
“China should concentrate on developing the real economy, the manufacturing sector for instance, to provide more stable and higher-quality jobs,” said Yu Chunhai, a professor of economics at the Beijing-based Renmin University.
“[China] needs to balance the pandemic control and economic growth to bring back investor confidence.”
Yu added that aspirations for an improved quality of life in China are still restricted by income levels and the number of flexible jobs, which are often associated with a low sense of security and income, combined with economic headwinds in recent years.
China has more than 400 million middle-income earners, or 140 million families, as part of its 1.4 billion population, National Bureau of Statistics commissioner Ning Jizhe said in January when talking about China’s economic performance in 2021.
There were many reasons for our support of the private economy. Now we may have to add another one: to help achieve common prosperity