Is the middle class China's Frankenstein monster?

A freelance acquaintance of mine, Francesco Sisci, has published another thought-provoking article about China.  In it he points out that, while China's GDP has increased 8-fold since 2001, the Peoples Republic may have created the monster that will turn on it and bring it down.

       Sisci argues that the middle class has virtually no benefits from the state --- not health care, not pensions, not much of anything --- while this one-third of China's population is taxed heavily.  The middle class can't vote.  And it's pretty much on its own.

      I'm reminded of  France before the Revolution.  When Louis XIV was dying, legend has it, he muttered, "After me, the deluge."  Boy, did he get that right.  And that Revolution was driven in large measure by an emerging middle-class that resented the privileges of the royals.  The term "heads will roll" originated from the years that followed.

     Getting out of China, Sisci adds, is the goal of many, including multitudes of students who come to the US.  Last week, as an alumni ambassador for my alma mater Case Western Reserve, I interviewed a high school senior from South China, who lives with a host family in Bucks County outside Philly and attends a tony Catholic High School there.  He said his parents sent him here because of the poor quality of the high schools available to him back home.

    His story may be emblematic of the attitude of many middle-income Chinese, who don't see a return on value from the state in the Peoples Republic.  He may be one tiny indication of the trouble that Sisci sees on the horizon for America's huge Asian rival.