THE MIDDLE KINGDOM:

Chinese middle class? It's just a myth, study finds: Although nearly half of mainlanders consider themselves middle class, only 4% meet the criteria, research shows (Chua Chin Hon, 1/27/04, Straits Times)

Nearly one in two mainland Chinese considers himself 'middle-class', according to a new study, although the researcher found that only 4.1 per cent of 5,860 people interviewed made the cut.

The study by Dr Li Chun- ling of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences appeared to debunk the widespread hype in the Chinese and international media about China's burgeoning middle class, which is expected to change everything from travel trends to consumer habits in the country and beyond.

'The so-called Chinese middle class is nothing but a myth and a bubble conjured up by some media organisations and researchers,' Dr Li was quoted as saying in a recent issue of the China Newsweek magazine. She could not be contacted for this report.

She also raised concerns that this false sense of optimism and 'achievement', fuelled in part by the hype and the country's sterling economic performance, may overshadow some of the very real and pressing problems in China, such as the rising income gap, unemployment and environmental degradation.

Between the end of 2001 and 2002, when the hype about the Chinese middle class was probably at its zenith, she and her team conducted a study of 5,860 people aged 16 to 70 in 12 regions, including Beijing, Shanghai, Zhejiang, Heilongjiang, Sichuan and Inner Mongolia.

Despite the lack of a recognised or widely accepted yardstick for being middle class, the study set out four criteria: profession, monthly income, consumption and lifestyle, and subjective identity.

China's structural problems are plentiful, but the false belief of the majority that they are middle class is hard to see as one of them. Such belief seems likely to alleviate an awful lot of political pressure on any government.

Posted by Orrin Judd at January 26, 2004 10:15 PM