There can be no more striking a consequence of recent Chinese economic reform than the emergence of a middle class, thought to number around 150 million people. This phenomenon is re-shaping the Chinese economy and conditioning the strategies of international companies seeking to do trade in this growing market. But who are these people? What are their views and perceptions? In the 18th century, the American middle class – rallying behind slogans such as “No taxation without representation!” – struggled hard for a say in their country’s political destiny. Are China’s emerging consumers hard-wired to repeat that experience, transferring in.uence at the cash register to power at the ballot box? Or has China, as its government professes, found an alternative model for development?