Socio-economic factors influencing the development of “society of medium wellness” (Xiaoqang) in China

Abstract

The article continues the consideration of the widespread in China notion of xiaoqang, the model of an ideal society. Xiaoqang can be translated into Russian as “a society of low income”, “a society of average prosperity”. In the late 1970s. China began to pursue a policy of reform and openness to the outside world, after which Deng Xiaoping used the concept of “xiaoqang” as a characteristic of the Chinese model of modernization. Xiaoqang became the goal that China was supposed to achieve by the end of the 20th century.

For years, party leaders, politicians, and Chinese scholars have discussed class in Marxist-Leninist terms: “workers”, “peasants”, and “intellectuals”. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) did not recognize any social, economic or political role for the middle class, and the ultimate goal of social development was to create a “classless society”. However, during the reform era, views of classes began to evolve, and at the 16th Congress of the Chinese Communist Party in 2002, Jiang Zemin proclaimed the goal of “controlling the growth of the upper strata of society, expanding the middle strata and shrinking the bottom”. Thereafter, the CCP began to develop a state-sponsored discourse about the “harmonious middle class”. The new goal was to create a middle-class society in which the bulk of the population would be “economically satisfied,” a “middle-class society”, xiaoqang, and this society would be harmonious.