China Urbanizes the Making of the Chinese Middle Class (Essay Sample)

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China Urbanizes the Making of the Chinese Middle Class
The china economy has risen at a very high rate with the many local and global companies seeking to have a share from the urban affluent customers. This is however changing with the emergence of another more complex Chinese segment which is the urban middle class whose spending power is projecting upwards and might be the one to redefine the Chinese market. This has triggered many companies to focus on this evaluation of the new class to ensure they benefit significantly to the opportunity. The rising economy in chine is lifting many households from poverty which means that the urban households would therefore be the world largest consumer market (Bach 425).
China’s middle class is therefore growing very fast and becoming a major factor in the urban china. This middle class has better education and is equipped with understanding of democracy and politics. This segment of china population is capable of self-justification and is viewed to be have benefits and gaining a steady influence on the society . The middle class have a relatively open mobility which is important as it acts as a perfect buffer zone in case of confrontation between the mass and the political leadership (Chun 16). The growth of the china’s middle class has therefore attracted attention from both the policy makers and academia field. For most industrialized societies, the middle class is usually the mainstream. It is the main source of power and is also to provide an amicable buffer some between the upper class and the lower class, and the middle class also acts as the stabilizer of the society at a large.
Previously in the communist era , the Chinese class structure was as simple alliance of intellectuals , workers and peasants. However, the 1978 economic reforms in china has seen the emergence of the middle class which is increasing in number ,cultural influent ,complexity and social political influence in the rapidly growing urbanization and industrialization. The trend in china is likely to continue as indicated by many scholars. Therefore, the middle class in china is becoming the main component of the entire population (Chun 18).

Urbanization in china has transformed in scale and speed in the past three decades. During the communist period in the 1980s there were less than 200 million Chinese population but currently over 700 million, which is more than half the total population lives in urban area and this is also projected to rise with the increased migration of foreign workers in the cities. This means that over 70% of the Chinese population would be living in the cities (Bach 427).
The urbanization in china is said to be the largest and fastest social movement witnessed in the human history which has evidently transformed the structure of the Chinese society creating an emerging middle class living in the urban area for the first time in the chines history.
The Chinese stability and peace of its political system is attributed to the prosperity of the new middle class . During the economic reforms , the middle class was allowed to accumulate wealth geared up by new policies. This made the Chinese middle class to become the important drivers of growth.it is projected that in 20 years , china will have added more than 350 million people in the cities. However, china will also have more than 221 cities with more than 1milion people will (Yu 322). This is therefore an opportunity for companies in china and the world because this urbanization scale promise new markets for investments. Rapid urbanization is also encouraged by the leadership as this is included in their five year plan because it is said to help the economy. The Chinese government is however planning to create new towns and cities instead of opening up the existing cities to urbanization. Therefore urbanization is an important Chinese plan with the priority of making the migrant workers into urban citizens which calls for fundamental change in the leadership systems. The ongoing urbanization in china will see an expansion of the economy with relatively a faster growth rate in the coming few years (Chun 22).
This is because urbanization will create a huge consumption and investment demand, which will also create many job opportunities. Although there is a rising challenge of the aging population, increasing labor cost and financial risks , the huge consumer demand is projected to expand steadily which will also advance urbanization and enhance household income.
China has also taken the direction of the private capitalism. The private entrepreneurs have emerged in china as the new economic elite. The continued economic growth in china and increasing scope and scale of the privatization of the state enterprises would be also lead to political changes that would be initiated by the growing number of the private entrepreneurs. The middle class are better educated and having vast knowledge on entrepreneurship. Privatization has therefore brought a revolution in home ownership and living thereby creating a powerful middle class of professionals and entrepreneurs (Bach 432).
Therefore, the rapid privatization and commercialization witnessed in the 19190s is the foundation of disintegration of the socialists system in china. This has also led to the formation of the urban economic and distribution systems. The emerging middle class in the urban are more conscious of private property ownership (Yu 324).
Globalization is said to create a middle class as they are measured in terms of their income and consumption levels. The increase in the global middle class has also triggered a geographical redistribution. Since globalization involves the movement of ideas and information, good a and people across the national boundaries, the influx of the migrants in china is fueled by the rapid growth of the middle class which has created an opportunity for jobs due to increased demand for resources. Globalization has made the globe literally flat because the lifestyle and tastes are more becoming influenced by the global trends and is changing rapidly. The middle class has diverted from struggling for physiological needs to a more robust consumption which is driven by media and information (Yu 328). The china’s open economic policy , exports and foreign investment has contributed greatly to its rapid economic growth. The rapid growth of this segment of the population is china has also led to the change in consumption behavior with many households looking for more luxurious goods such as insurance, tourism , houses and automobiles. This has therefore led to an emerging middle class market to satisfy the consumption trend. On the other hand, globalization has been on the transforming end of the ideologies, lifestyle and culture of the Chinese population. The Chinese traditional culture have been tremendously altered with the anti-capitalism ideologies abolished through the middle class consciousness. It is evident that globalization has affected the daily lives of the china’s population and has changed the attitudes of the people towards issues such as beauty ,fashion shows ,dressing and hair styles, leisure and sexual behaviors (Yu 340).
During the 1980 and 1990s that saw the onset of globalization came at a time when china was shifting from the autarkic system of central planning to a trade driven market economy. Scholars indicate that globalization led to the collapse of the socialist system in china and has come through this transition as stable and stronger state. The new middle class has in the china’s cities tend to imagine that with democratic system, the majority of the rural poor would be empowered. However, the Chinese middle class were afraid of the war that erupted following the collapse of the soviet union and therefore were ready to work with the technocratic and authoritarian political leadership (Yu 351).
The socialist system characterized by a social revolutions which was spearheaded by the Chinese communist party in1949 under the Mao on top of the leadership. This movement was aimed at transforming china to a centralized planned socialist economy to curb unequal and capitalist society in the forming. This socialist transition was implemented by 1956. In the 1960 a strict china communist party household registration system was in play preventing villagers from seeking opportunities in the cities. This had led to a wide gap between those living in the urban areas with those in the farmlands with regard to their income (Chun 24). During the socialist regime the urban economy became state owned with all the businesses and assets ,employment and productions became organized to a state controlled systems . They were therefore subject to a lot of bureaucracy and not market regulations. The youth and graduates were bureaucratically assigned jobs which had designated wage ladder, benefits and subsidized housing among other goodies. However, in 1978 the new leadership came up with a fundamental rejuvenation from the planned socialist economy to state to install market reforms. This market reform was done is a systematic strategy of priv...