economy - "Forget about the middle class in China"

Arthur Kroeber of CEQ and Paul French of Access Asia caused a high turnout last night in Shanghai as about one hundred people joined their lecture on the middle class in China. I'm not even going to try to reproduce their arguments, but just a few highlights.
The whole concept of the middle class is only confusing, said Kroeber, and he said it would be better if we would abolish the concept for China all together. In economic terms the Chinese "middle class" is tiny compared to the traditional US middle class, he argued. In ten years time the economic middle class would have grown from a 100 million people now to 280 million. In size their would measure up to the current US middle class, but they would only have a quarter of their spending power.
Paul French joined the struggle against the all-too-optimistic views on China's purchasing power. "Have you ever seen a report of an investment bank that was not bullish," he asked. "Do not believe them. French focused on the supermarkets, who are in some places like Shanghai and Chongqing in a terrible oversupply and unable to make any money on sales. The customers of the supermarket chain Lianhua leave the store with an average purchase between 40 and 45 Renminbi. So, supermarket do not make a living by selling product, but buy the slot fees for shelf space manufacturers.
Why would manufacturers then rather buy shelf space rather than store their produces in warehouses? French: "In China good warehouses are more expensive than shelf space, so it might still be a good deal."

Update: Paul French is also part of our China Speakers' Bureau and actually one of our most wanted speakers. If you want to book Paul French for a key note, speech, seminar or otherwise, you can drop a line at our headquarters or let me know.