China’s Middle Class in Making

Dr Hyun Bang Shin

Senior LecturerDepartment of Geography and EnvironmentThe London School of Economics and Political Science

h.b.shin@lse.ac.uk

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China’s City-based Accumulation

“ 城市，让生活更美好Better City, Better Life”

The Chinese phrase actually means…

“City makes your life happier”

Investment as the greatest contributorto GDP growth

Source: http://usa.chinadaily.com.cn/weekly/2012-01/20/content_14480020.htm

The Economist, 3 January 2008Source: http://www.economist.com/node/10429271

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66

Middle Class as Key to Consumption

Proletarianisation and Middle class in making

Two processes as two sides of the same coin

Cheap labour as the cornerstone of China’s rise

Workers’ aspiration to climb up the suzhi ladder. Person attributes

China’s rise and technological upgrading: limits on absorbing rural surplus labour in the manufacturing sector

Middle Class in making hinges on:

China’s long-term economic development

Middle Class in making hinges on: Future prospect of uneven regional development

Source: http://www.colorado.edu/geography/class_homepages/geog_1982_f06/regional_development.jpg

Middle Class in making hinges on:Social stability

United voice ... demonstrators protest against alleged pollution from a paper factory in Qidong, near Shanghai. Photograph: Peter Parks/Getty

URL: http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2012/aug/21/environment-activists-china-pollution-protest