Jack Ma's speech in London: China will have 500 million middle class people in 10 years

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According to foreign media reports, Alibaba CEO Jack Ma told business leaders in London on Wednesday that China will accumulate 500 million middle-class people in the next 10 to 20 years.

"For the past 20 years, China has been export-focused, and for the next 10 and 20 years, China will be import-focused," he said.

Some opponents say they have heard similar arguments before. The argument that China will become an importing country has been around for at least three years, but China's imports are still modest. Although many large consumer brands are still popular among Chinese consumers, sales of luxury brands in China have begun to decline.

However, Chinese consumption is still growing steadily, so Ma hopes to convince British entrepreneurs that they should put their products on his e-commerce website and sell them to their own people. Ma said Western companies should see China as a "huge opportunity."

Investors are watching closely as China's economy shifts from exports and investment to consumption. It's a slow but steady process. This rebalancing is critical to most fund managers' China investment strategies. Ma believes it's also important for corporate investors. Although China's economic growth has fallen back below 7%, it's still the world's best consumer market outside the United States.