In an unusually candid study of the rising new class on the mainland, a book entitled Investigation of Chinese Middle Class was recently published by Beijing-based Unity Press.

For many years, China's official dictionary defined the middle class as being almost equivalent to that of the bourgeois, if not the capitalist class. Even in some dictionaries published as recently as 1996, the term middle class is explained as the middle level of the bourgeois class.

And none of the official papers ever discussed how building a society that is generally well-off, and where wealth is equitably distributed, would unavoidably result in the growth of a large middle class.

However, a senior official from the National Statistics Bureau told an audience at an economics conference in December 2002, that in 20 years, the middle class would be the main stratum in Chinese society. The new book presents the first study since then of a middle class emerging from the mainland's 25 years of reform and development.

The middle class, as explained in the book, is defined by American sociologists as a group of society dependent on large organizations, having few fixed assets in business, earning their living mainly through utilizing professional knowledge and skills, and lacking in revolutionary passion.

In China, as Chen Kuanren and Yi Yang, the two authors of the book, explain, middle class members come mainly from the ranks of private proprietors, senior employees in foreign companies, professionals such as engineers and senior school teachers, managers of large State-owned enterprises or are artists or sports stars.

According to Professor Xiao Zhuoji of Peking University, the Chinese middle class could therefore be decribed as people who are able to enjoy a comfortable standard of living, as compared to others who eke out a meagre existence.

The commonly held view is that the individuals who made a quick fortune in the early days of reform, such as those who made their money by sellng State-controlled industrial materials at market prices, or were able to get lucrative government contracts through personal relationships, will not be where the bulk of the new middle class comes from in the future.

It is predicted that the group will be culturally aware, have strong purchasing power and respect for the rule of law.

The authors also note that there has been an increasing amount of private ownership of enterprises both large and small, and that it is this group that most obviously illustrates the changes that have occured in Chinese society during the years of reform.

The book quotes Professor Qing Lianbin, of the Communist Party of China Central Party School, as saying that these private owners, who are usually workers at their own companies as well, only form a small part of society, which is still largely composed of farmers and workers or labourers.

This having been said, the authors argue that it is easy to see the vast difference in the social structure of China today, as compared to 20 years or even 10 years ago, especially in large cities such as Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and the surrounding regions.

A new stratum of society that formerly didn't exist in Chinese society has suddenly come into being and experienced a rapid expansion, reflecting not only the opportunities created in China's reform and development, but also China's increasing role in the global economy.

Despite the fundamental differences between China and the West, the authors argue that Western scholars' definitions of different levels in society are still useful references when describing China's own changes in social structure.

Whether one considers China's new middle class, currently less than 15 per cent of the total working population, as big or small, its very existence is enough to warrant further discussion and public attention, says Li Qiang, a professor at Tsinghua University.

Whatever the ultimate reaction is from readers towards the book, it seems certain to arouse plenty of debate over the next few months.

Before the book's publication, in a recent study of the social structure of Chinese society, a group of scholars from the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences had described Chinese society as falling into 10 main groups: officials and civil servants; management professionals; private sector entrepreuners; engineers and technicians; clerks; self-employed people; employees of service industries; industrial workers; agricultural workers and the jobless.

There have been numerous articles in the media which ascribe various criteria to determine who qualifies as a member of China's middle class - from setting a benchmark of 200,000 yuan annual income to ownership of a villa and a car; and from having spent three years abroad and being able to speak a foreign language fluently to being a fashion leader.

In today's China, a label that once may have associated a person with everything that was associated with the enemy of the people, is now synonymous with everything that society aspires to.

(HK Edition 10/19/2004 page16)