OpinionThinking About China

China’s Disappearing Middle Class

China’s economic challenges are shrinking its once-burgeoning middle class, while its demographic issues will create more such problems in the future.
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China’s Disappearing Middle Class
A tech worker poses for a portrait in Beijing's middle-class neighborhood of Shangdi, China, on June 29, 2022. Noel Celis/AFP via Getty Images
Milton Ezrati
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Commentary

China’s middle class has enjoyed a remarkably rapid pace of growth for decades. From the late 1970s to the 2010s, expanding work opportunities allowed peasants to rise out of abject poverty and other workers to begin accumulating a measure of wealth.

Milton Ezrati
Milton Ezrati
Author
Milton Ezrati is a contributing editor at The National Interest, an affiliate of the Center for the Study of Human Capital at the University at Buffalo (SUNY), and chief economist for Vested, a New York-based communications firm. Before joining Vested, he served as chief market strategist and economist for Lord, Abbett & Co. He also writes frequently for City Journal and blogs regularly for Forbes. His latest book is "Thirty Tomorrows: The Next Three Decades of Globalization, Demographics, and How We Will Live."