Building Middle Class is Key to the Chinese Dream

After the closing of the Communist Party's 18th National Congress in September, at the first media conference for members of the Politburo Standing Committee, Xi Jinping described a Chinese dream.

The picture Xi presented, ranging from the rights to education to a clean environment to individual happiness, was in fact a blueprint for a flourishing middle class. Coincidentally, U.S. President Barack Obama's first State of the Union address since his reelection also placed particular emphasis on revitalizing and consolidating the middle class as a national policy focus. In the next 20 years, the most important symbol of China's rise to a rich, strong, and prosperous nation will be whether the majority of citizens have entered the middle class.