The American dream gives way to the Chinese dream and global wealth moves from west to east.
For the first time in history China has surpassed the United States in the number of billionaires and the size of the middle class. The Asian giant beats America on both fronts, setting up an absolute record that is even more surprising given that it comes at a time when Beijing's growth has slowed down considerably.
In 2015, China's super-rich rose by 596,242 units from 2014, while American billionaires stood at 537, according to Hurun magazine's report and Credit Suisse's global economic health survey. As far as the middle class is concerned, a record 109 million people were reached in Beijing compared to 92 million in the USA. The overtaking occurred despite the fact that the Chinese middle class slowed down its expansion from +8,5% in 2009 to +7,1% in 2015.
Going into even more detail, according to the Beijing Academy of Sciences, 38% of Chinese belong to the middle class, with peaks of 49% in the capital and in Shanghai. In addition, in 2015 for the first time 51% of the middle class resides in Asia compared to 31% in 2001.
Returning instead to the billionaires, the ranking is dominated by hi-tech and web entrepreneurs, from Lei Jun of Xiaomi to Cheng Wei, inventor of the competing app of the US Uber.
In short, from now on those who want to cultivate their dreams of wealth will do well to buy a plane ticket to Beijing and not to New York.
