Moreover, the narrow social buffer that China's middle class provides tends to favor the rich, rather than being a balancing factor between the haves and have-nots. If the middle class continues to shirk its responsibility of playing a balancing role in society, it would intensify the rich-poor contradictions instead of alleviating them. And since it can never be part of the upper class in terms of wealth or mentality, the middle class would face the threat of being marginalized.

But the existing economic structure doesn't favor the growth of the middle class, Yu says. So far, the economy has been engaged in a game between market capital and political power. And many people fear that if the dominance of the privileged class continues it could lead to social rupture, widening of the income gap and a sluggish increase in the number of the stabilizing middle class.

The fast-paced economic development has failed to serve the poor and underprivileged well, which could undermine further economic prosperity and thwart the efforts to build a harmonious society.

To be frank, Yu says, the current policy environment doesn't suit the growth of the middle class because the rich control a majority of the economic resources. As a result, the middle class has been caught in a dilemma of choosing between pleasing the rich and being self-independent, and that makes it socially unaccountable for policy changes. In such a social structure, medium-income earners, at the most, can only try to maintain their status and be totally helpless in stabilizing the social order.

To build a middle-class-dominant or an olive-shaped society, an equal power-distribution system has to be established for which more political reform is essential. It's the only way to ease the tensions between the power-abusing rich and the hopeless poor, Yu says. And it's an effective way of creating a better environment for the development of the middle class into a more socially responsible force.