Middle class in China, US fear losing status as key economic segment walk the tightrope
- China has seen a significant increase in the size and influence of its middle class, but an ageing population is set to hinder its growth
- In the US, its middle class has fallen from 61 per cent of the population in 1971 to 50 per cent last year amid flat wage growth and a drop in university enrolments
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Middle class in China and US fear losing status
On one side, the American middle class is shrinking as wages stagnate, and on the other, China’s key segment of society is suffering weak expansion amid an uneven economic recovery. Either way, post-pandemic problems are hurting the rank and file.
China has seen a significant increase in the size and influence of its middle class during the past decades of reform and opening-up, but some policies aimed at private enterprises have in fact been seen to slow its momentum.
“This may have weakened the expansion of the middle class,” said Gavin Chiu Sin-hin, an independent UK-based commentator, former lecturer and associate professor at several universities in Guangdong and Hong Kong.
The decline of the middle class indicates that it is more difficult for China to break out of the middle-income trap
“The decline of the middle class indicates that it is more difficult for China to break out of the middle-income trap and transform into a developed country,” he said.
There have long been concerns about the so-called middle-income trap, a stage of economic development in which income levels stagnate, preventing a country from joining the ranks of rich nations.
