Sign up to The Irish Times Archive (1859 - 2008)My Account »

Sat 04 Apr 2007Consumer boom led by Chinese middle class still largely a fantasyThe majority of Chinese are off the radar for western companies, writes Clifford Coonan.An affluent middle class in China has long been a holy grail of global capitalism, a vast pool of willing consumers keen to buy Western goods. Lancashire cotton mill owners in the 19th century dreamed of the untold wealth that awaited if pigtailed Chinese would add just one inch to their shirt-tails, just as the mandarins of the Detroit car industry today look to Chinese buyers to dig them out of the stagnant mire of US auto consumption.