Already there ... but still a long way to go

Fan Xiaojun, bureau chief of National Development and Reform Commission in Wuxi Binhu district, could be regarded as being in a happy position.

If the Chinese government acts to set a target of reaching high-income status by 2020 in the next Five-Year Plan (2016-20), as many now expect, his district will already have achieved that goal.

By the World Bank's current definition, Wuxi Binhu became a high-income economy three years ago.