The Social Classes
The Tier 2
The Bigwigs
The Tier 1
The Head Honchos
They are the members of Communist Party Politburo, which oversees the ruling party, they has the power to set agenda and make decisions regarding national and international policy that essentially runs China.
They are Ministers and provincial-level heads with substantive power. They have direct influence on national policymaking.
They are municipal or county-level party heads, prominent university professors, owners of medium to large sized companies, top managers at large corporations; well-known doctors and lawyers; famous writers and celebrities. Those in Tier 4 have ties to the ruling class.
They are Ministers, provincial-level heads with less power and owners of top companies like Alibaba or very wealthy businesspeople. They have the power of some influence over the development of certain regions or industries.
The Tier 4
The Privileged
The Tier 3
The Powerbrokers
Chinese Social Classes by Today
In modern China society, class is a sensitive word in China and after 35 years of breakneck-speed development, social class has become increasingly entrenched, opportunities for upward mobility increasingly limited. In few of the articles there were several classifications of the Chinese people into few broad categories. According to the latest article in 2014 status that “On the Chinese web, a popular (anonymous) post currently making the rounds offers a revealing dissection of China’s current class structure, dividing society into nine tiers, describing the first three tiers as the “ruling class” and the bottom three as the “underclass.” (RachelLu,2014)
Based on this latest article, there are nine tiers current class structure in China. Furthermore, the classifications of the Chinese people based on their political power, wealth and reputation, reflecting the fact that the ruling Communist Party plays a large role in the distribution of social goods in China.
The Tier 5
The Very Comfortable
They are mid-level party cadres with power over certain pockets of local policy; successful small to medium sized business owners; they can be university professors; mid-managers of large corporations; owners of multiple real property in large cities; reputable doctors, lawyers, and engineers. Those in Tier 5 have control over their careers.
They are ordinary civil servants; white-collar workers; ordinary doctors, lawyers, and engineers; modestly successful small business owners. Those in Tier 6 have social mobility to ascend to Tier 5 or Tier 4.
The Tier 6
The Squeezed
The Tier 7
The Marginalized
The Tier 8
The Underclass
The Tier 9
The Destitute
They are ordinary factory workers; owners of mom and pop shops; urban residents with odd jobs; wealthy peasants. Those in Tier 7 have the means to subsist in medium to large Chinese cities.
They are migrant workers in sweatshops; ordinary peasants. Those in Tier 8 can eke out a living on their own.
They are long-term unemployed urban residents; impoverished peasants in far-flung rural areas.