China 'no longer a poor country'

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The latest report from China's statistics bureau suggests that it is no longer a low income country.

It has progressed to become a lower middle income country, according to definitions provided by the World Bank, the bureau said.

The latest report celebrates China's economic success in the past 30 years. The country's GDP of more than $3tn now makes up 6% of the world economy.

But it stresses that poverty remains one of the biggest challenges.

It is equivalent to about a quarter of the GDP of the US, three-quarters of Japan's GDP, and 99.5% of the German GDP.

Against the background of the global financial crisis, China's new status has already attracted higher expectations for it to take on more responsibilities.

But while the Chinese leadership enjoys the limelight of economic growth, it remains reluctant to give up its status as a developing nation.

Transformation

The remarkable economic revolution has transformed lives for millions of ordinary people.

Thirty years ago, the average income of a Chinese person was not enough to buy a bicycle or a wheel for a car.

Now at $2,360, it is worth a decent second hand car.

China's growing middle class can now afford a house, a car, luxurious goods and foreign holidays, acquisitions many in the West take for granted.

More Chinese families are sending their children to study abroad.

Wealth gap

But there are still more than 135 million Chinese who live on less than one US dollar a day.

That is more than twice the total population of the UK.

The staggering income gap between rich and poor, and between the prosperous coastal areas and the western regions, still poses a threat to the country's social stability.