Social mobility will fall for China’s disadvantaged

Subject

Social mobility in China.

Significance

So far, the Communist Party leadership has only addressed the most extreme manifestations of inequality -- high-level corruption and rural poverty. It has not tackled a wide range of social, economic and institutional barriers to social mobility that affect hundreds of millions of people across the country.

Impacts

• Members of China’s middle class are already approaching the limits of their upward mobility.
• The social credit system could evolve in a way that exacerbates the divide between the economically advantaged and disadvantaged.
• The campaign to eliminate absolute poverty will do little to address the problem of relative poverty in urban areas.