You can profit From China’s Growing Upper Class — Even If You Don’t Speak Chinese When I lived in China, most Chinese people were poor compared to their American counterparts. People were considered well off if they owned a car or had an apartment with hot water on demand. In China, the wealthy class has ballooned. China is now in second place, after the U.S., for the most ultra high net worth individuals. And the wealthy class there is expected to keep on growing, with the number of Chinese millionaires expected to surge 41 percent to 2.7 million by 2022. This means that there are lots of Chinese people in the market for goods and services their parents couldn’t afford.