Forever developing

Speaking at the recently concluded summit of the Brics nations in South Africa, the President of the People’s Republic of China, Xi Jinping, insisted that his country “was, is, and will always be a member of the developing world”. It is unlikely that Mr Xi was expressing grave scepticism about future Chinese growth, and revealing a belief the country would be stuck in the middle-income trap. If not, how should this statement be interpreted? It is, more than anything else, a declaration that no matter how rich China becomes and how much its interests diverge from those of developing countries,