Expanding the size of this social group and increasing their consumption capability will drive economic development

Any great power's rise is closely related to its growing middle-income group, and, to some extent, the development maturity of the middle class determines a society's progress and prosperity. The middle-income group is also the key for China to attain an olive-shaped income distribution society, without which China cannot sustain its dynamic growth.

The middle-income group used to be the majority of the population in developed countries, but that has changed in recent years. With the acceleration of the globalization process, the income gap has widened in developed countries and the inequality in their societies has become more serious, which has led to the shrinking of the global middle-income population. Especially after the financial crisis in 2008, with continuously increasing unemployment and a growing debt burden, the middle-income group faces "collapse" in developed countries, and income distribution is changing from an olive-shaped pattern to a M-shaped one, a polarized society with an extremely rich group and an extreme poor group.