2025 Latest #中金 Wealth Report: An Overlooked Warning Sign

In China International Capital Corporation's latest wealth report, there is a set of data that is very striking but almost no one is seriously discussing.
The total asset share of 1.3 billion ordinary people

2023: 7%

2025: 3%

In just three years, 4% of the total social assets have undergone a “silent transfer”—
Flowing from ordinary people to state-owned sectors and a small group of high-net-worth individuals.
This is not “feeling poorer,”
but a structural change that has already occurred on the books.
1. The middle class is being systematically squeezed
More concerning is the data on the middle class.

2013: Middle class total assets account for 25%

2025: Decreased to 13.7%

Almost halved.
What does this mean?
It means the middle class is not “gradually getting poorer,”
but its asset position is being rapidly weakened within an economic cycle.
2. The problem is not effort, but structure
Many still comfort themselves with old logic:
“Just work a little harder, and it will be fine.”
But the reality is:

The middle class lacks core productive assets

Assets are highly concentrated in real estate and wage income

Once faced with deflation, industry contraction, or worsening employment,

Income and assets will be under simultaneous pressure

The result is:
Over a cycle, they are directly pushed back to their original state.
This is not an individual ability issue,
but an inherently fragile asset structure.
3. This is the most dangerous part
The wealth gap itself is not scary,
What is truly dangerous is—
👉 Rapid decline
👉 Very little buffer space
👉 The middle layer losing its stabilizer role
When the middle class can no longer continuously accumulate assets,
the social structure will become increasingly “sharp.”
4. Conclusion: This is reality, not pessimism
This is not an emotional vent,
but a reality that must be faced with data.
If you still hold the belief
“As long as the job is stable, there’s no problem,”
then you are only seeing the surface.
The real changes,
have long been written on the balance sheet.
The era has not abandoned those who work hard,
but it is rapidly淘汰ing those “without an asset structure.”
This is what the China International Capital Corporation report truly aims to remind us.