China’s Challenges in Moving towards a High-income Economy

China’s per capita income reached US$10,000 in 2019—an important milestone in measuring the significant improvement in wellbeing for 1.4 billion Chinese people resulting from the decades-long program of reform and development. In the same year, China’s total gross domestic product (GDP) reached US$14.3 trillion, accounting for 16.4 per cent of global GDP according to World Bank estimates, which matches closely to China’s share of about 18 per cent of global population. Along with the rise in per capita income and total GDP, the Chinese economy witnessed some fundamental changes in the pattern of industrialisation, continuing to move towards high value-added production, trade and investment, progress on innovation and technological change and large-scale poverty reduction. These changes reflect some key features associated with a new and more advanced stage of growth and development. These structural changes are expected to continue to deepen and will allow China to accomplish its goal of becoming a high-income economy, which is one marked by a level of per capita income above US$12,270.