As China's economy has continued to experience economic
growth at a rate unparalleled among modern economies, the
country's GDP has expanded at a rate of nearly 6-7% per year
for more than 20 years. The Chinese economic miracle doesn't
have a comparison in modern times, as it has rapidly created an
expanding middle class where none existed before. Indeed, a recent
report by consulting firm McKinsey Consulting Group
estimated that 6 percent of China's urban residents qualified
as members of the middle class in 2010, while also estimating that
more than half of the PRC's urban residents will be a part of
this class by 2020.
The new Chinese middle class has come to expect the status
symbols enjoyed by middle-class consumers in the Western world, car
ownership among them. Car ownership in the country thus has grown
at similarly astronomical rates to China's GDP as cars have
become a status symbol to China's growing middle class.
Nevertheless, there are a number of
