China's Emerging Middle Class

by Yuen Chan | September 22, 2005 -- 6:30 PM

China experts are predicting that a quarter of the population will belong to the middle class in five years. International businesses are eyeing China's growing middle class as a huge potential market for luxury goods, while Chinese policy makers are looking to the creation of a large middle class as a stabilizing force. But what exactly does it mean to be middle class in China today?