Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Cheng Li is a senior fellow and director of research at the Brookings Institution's John L. Thornton Center. His previous books include China's Leaders: The New Generation (Rowman and Littlefield, 2001) and his edited volume China's Changing Political Landscape: Prospects for Democracy (Brookings, 2008). Li is also a director of the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations, and he is the principal editor of the Thornton Center Chinese Thinkers Series, published by the Brookings Institution Press.

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China's Emerging Middle Class

BROOKINGS INSTITUTION PRESS

Contents

Foreword Kenneth Lieberthal...........................................................................................................xiAcknowledgments........................................................................................................................xv1 Introduction: The Rise of the Middle Class in the Middle Kingdom Cheng Li...........................................................32 The New Global Middle Class: A Crossover from West to East Homi Kharas and Geoffrey Gertz...........................................323 Chinese Scholarship on the Middle Class: From Social Stratification to Political Potential Cheng Li.................................554 Globalization, Social Transformation, and the Construction of China's Middle Class Zhou Xiaohong and Qin Chen.......................845 The Chinese Middle Class and Xiaokang Society Lu Hanlong............................................................................1046 Characterizing China's Middle Class: Heterogeneous Composition and Multiple Identities Li Chunling..................................1357 China's New Upper Middle Classes: The Importance of Occupational Disaggregation Jianying Wang and Deborah Davis.....................1578 China's Housing Reform and Emerging Middle Class Joyce Yanyun Man...................................................................1799 The Housing Effect: The Making of China's Social Distinctions Luigi Tomba...........................................................19310 Higher Education Expansion and China's Middle Class Jing Lin and Xiaoyan Sun.......................................................21711 Placing China's Middle Class in the Asia-Pacific Context Hsin-Huang Michael Hsiao..................................................24512 Middle-Class Grassroots Identity and Participation in Citizen Initiatives, China and South Korea Han Sang-Jin......................26413 China's Cooperative Capitalists: The Business End of the Middle Class Bruce J. Dickson.............................................29114 What Do Chinese Lawyers Want? Political Values and Legal Practice Ethan Michelson and Sida Liu.....................................31015 Attitudes toward Democracy and the Political Behavior of China's Middle Class Jie Chen.............................................334Bibliography...........................................................................................................................359Contributors...........................................................................................................................373Index..................................................................................................................................381

Chapter One

CHENG LI

Among the many forces shaping China's course of development, arguably none will prove more significant in the long run than the rapid emergence and explosive growth of the Chinese middle class. China's ongoing economic transition from a relatively poor, developing nation to a middle-class country has been one of the most fascinating human dramas of our time. Never in history have so many people made so much economic progress in one or two generations. Just twenty years ago a distinct socioeconomic middle class was virtually nonexistent in the People's Republic of China (PRC), but today a large number of Chinese citizens, especially in coastal cities, own private property and personal automobiles, have growing financial assets, and are able to take vacations abroad and send their children overseas for school. This transformation is likely to have wide-ranging implications for every aspect of Chinese life, especially the country's long-term economic prospects, energy consumption, and environmental well-being.

The importance of China's emerging middle class, of course, extends far beyond the realm of economics. This volume focuses on the sociopolitical ramifications of the birth and growth of the Chinese middle class over the past two decades. The central question is: What impacts, current and future, might China's emerging middle class have on the country's social structure and political system? Following this broad line of inquiry, the volume sets itself four tasks:

—To examine the status of research on social stratification and social mobility in China

—To identify the major issues and trends related to the Chinese middle class

—To compare the Chinese middle class with its counterparts in other countries

—And to assess the values, worldviews, and potential political roles of the Chinese middle class as well as its likely impact on China's rise on the world stage.

This introductory chapter provides an overview of the political significance and historical background of the emerging Chinese middle class and summarizes the existing literature and ongoing debates on the topic.

The Sociopolitical Significance of a Chinese Middle Class

Early studies of newly affluent groups in China, including the nascent middle class, tend to emphasize the status quo–oriented, risk-averse nature of these prime beneficiaries of economic reform. However, more recent studies (including many by PRC scholars) suggest that this may simply be a transitory phase in the development of the middle class. There already appears to be widespread resentment among the middle class toward official corruption and the state's monopoly over major industries. Another potential source of sociopolitical ferment lies in the increasing number of college graduates, many of whom belong to middle-class families, who are unable to find work. An economic downturn, led by the collapse of the real estate market or the stock market—two institutions that have contributed enormously to the rapid expansion of the Chinese middle class—will only heighten the middle class's sense of grievance. Furthermore, the middle class is central to China's new development strategy, which seeks to reorient China's economy from one overly dependent on exports to one driven by domestic demand. The increasing economic role of the middle class may in turn enhance the group's political influence.

China's emerging middle class is, of course, a complex mosaic of groups and individuals. Subsets of the middle class differ enormously from each other. In terms of the class's occupational and sociological composition, its members fall into three major clusters:

—An economic cluster (including private sector entrepreneurs, urban small businesspeople, rural industrialists and rich farmers, foreign and domestic joint-venture employees, and stock and real estate speculators)

—A political cluster (government officials, office clerks, state sector managers, and lawyers)

—A cultural and educational cluster (academics and educators, media personalities, public intellectuals, and think tank scholars).

There is a tendency, sometimes, to assume that the relationship between China's middle class and its authoritarian state is one of simple, one-dimensional co-optation, but this is to oversimplify. Undoubtedly some members of the class are the clients of political patrons, but many more are self-made people. Indeed, such an economically aspirant population is a double-edged sword for the Chinese authorities. They are well aware of the fact that the middle...