Chinese in disbelief that a US$295 monthly salary makes them ‘middle class’
- Statistics bureau gives rare official definition of ‘middle income’ that is met with ridicule online, forcing it to clarify that it applied to a specific report
- Many people in the demographic struggle to keep up with high living costs
China wants its middle class to counter an economic slowdown by spending more, but in reality many of them are struggling financially.
Their plight has again come into view after the National Bureau of Statistics on Friday gave a rare official definition of “middle income” – and it seems many people disagreed. The agency was forced to issue a clarification after its estimate was met with widespread ridicule online.
Many Chinese have reacted with disbelief on social media.
“Are you kidding me? I make 3,000 yuan and suddenly I’m middle class? I think I’m low-income,” one person wrote on microblogging site Weibo.
Another said: “These must be average figures for affluent areas and the most underdeveloped areas – it’s not accurate to use specific areas for this.”
The reaction prompted a statement from the statistics bureau clarifying that the middle-income definition applied only to the report. “The term ‘middle-income group’ mentioned in the survey results has nothing to do with income brackets in the general sense,” the statement said.