I'm going to push back a bit here: things are improving, and China is already as rich as Mexico...now I get that American's have a unjustly bad impression of Mexico because of poverty at the not very populated border, but Mexico isn't a poor country, nor is Thailand, etc...these are all middle income countries that are quickly approaching high income countries.
Having lived in China for 9 years, and left 9 years ago, I can't really justify calling China poor anymore. Ya, they have a huge rural area and they still have lots of poor people, but they have a huge middle class (even if it isn't a majority of the country) that can afford a lot of things.
The average household income in China is equivalent to making $17K salary in the US, and on average, Chinese work 25% more hours than Americans
Average home in their Tier 1 cities is 20x annual salary, compared to a 7x ratio in NYC
It's still pretty bleak for the average person there- you see that reflected in the "let it rot" youth movement online