The capacity of the domestic economy to lift China’s growth in the coming years is in doubt as the latest official figures show that around 620 million Chinese people spend only 83 yuan (US$12.70) a month on leisure, American media has reported.

That amount, which is just about enough to buy two Angus cheeseburger set meals, raises questions about the official claim that the Chinese population has thoroughly shaken off poverty, the credibility of the central government’s “internal circulation” economic development strategy, and its goal of doubling the size of the economy in 2035.

An official public survey showed that per capita leisure spending among the Chinese reached 5,647 yuan in the past year, according to a green paper on leisure development in China between 2019 and 2020, VOA reported.

Of the residents interviewed, 22.7% spent 1,001 yuan to 3,000 yuan on leisure, 10% spent 3,001 yuan to 5,000 yuan, 11.1% spent 5,001 yuan to 10,000 yuan, and 11.8% spent more than 10,000 yuan, the VOA report said.

As for the remaining 44.4% of residents, they fell within the expenses bracket of less than 1,000 yuan a year. It meant that across the country, 620 million people expended a monthly sum of only 83 yuan on fun and recreation.

The green paper was jointly issued by the National Academy of  Economic Strategy and the tourism research center under the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, as well as the Social Sciences Literature Press.

In June, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang highlighted that around 600 million citizens drew monthly incomes of just 1,000 yuan.

Putting the two sets of data together, it could be seen that most of the Chinese people were not only low-income earners but also thrifty consumers, said Wu Ming-tse, associate research fellow at Taiwan’s Chung-wah Institution for Economic Research.

Around 940 million Chinese citizens spent less than 3,000 yuan a year on leisure, which meant that their salaries merely covered the costs of living, Wu noted. Based on the official figures, it was hard to believe that China had succeeded in alleviating poverty and become a moderately prosperous middle-class society, he added.

On the contrary, the problem of the wealth gap and the exploitation of the working class were worsening, he said.

The Chinese government had plans to turn China into a moderately developed country by 2035, but Wu believed it would be a very difficult endeavor as it would require the economy to grow about 5% each year. Based on the experience of large economies, the pace of growth would normally go on a decline, unless China could compensate for the lack of growth each year by expanding government investment, he said.

Wu also questioned China’s unemployment rate, which he believed could reach 10% to 15% given inadequate research on the jobless situation of migrant workers and the departure of foreign companies from the Chinese market.

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