China has had massive economic growth in recent years, but were undisputedly a developing country prior to that growth.
They may deserve to be reclassified now, although their GDP per capita is still much lower than the US.
They may deserve to be reclassified now, although their GDP per capita is still much lower than the US.
My wife is Chinese and last year we went to my father in law's home village in Hebei and stayed with his brother and his family. They have a really nice bungalow they moved into about 10 years ago in a compound right next to the decaying remains of their former house. Almost the whole village has been rebuilt in the last few decades. Hardly anywhere in China is anything like the way it was 30 years ago.
Growing up in Shropshire in the 70s and 80s there were plenty of people in the little villages and isolated farm houses that lived like it was still the 1800s. France too in the early 2000s. Development is never evenly distributed.