The View | To call the likes of China and India ‘developing’ is, frankly, insulting

Is this a developing economy: it produces advanced 7-nanometre silicon chips, is the world’s biggest producer of renewable energy components, has more smart factories than anywhere else, is the world’s leading electric vehicle manufacturer, has continental-scale mobile phone coverage and the most powerful hydroelectric, solar and wind power stations, as well as the largest distribution network.

This country could be in Europe or North America except that Pew Research estimates that over half of its 1.4 billion people are “middle class”. Calling China a “developing country” is, frankly, insulting.

And while “less developed” may have described China back in the 1970s when most of its people lived in poverty, it no longer does for a country where extreme poverty has been all but eradicated. To suggest otherwise is a misuse of statistics.

In the investment world, the terms “less developed” and “Third World” have been rightly regarded as pejorative, so descriptions such as “emerging” and “frontier” have come into use. For instance, the MSCI Emerging Markets Index launched in 2001 includes Brazil, China, India, South Korea, Malaysia, Qatar and even three countries in the European Union.

China, which boasts the largest and fastest rail network in the world, has more than 5,300 companies listed on its mainland stock markets. The Bombay Stock Exchange, whose beginnings date back 149 years, also has more than 5,300 companies listed. This is comparable to America, where the New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq combined have about 6,000 companies listed – and where equity trading goes back more than 230 years.