Service businesses are largely clean, unlike the factories China has long relied on. And services generate more jobs per yuan of output, an important benefit as the country shifts to a slower growth rate. The industry expands in tandem with higher household incomes as families spend more on education, insurance, restaurants, travel and the other trappings of middle-class life. President Xi Jinping stressed in a Jan. 18 meeting with ministers and provincial officials the role of services, innovation, and household consumption as the new economic drivers.
China has a long way to go before it resembles the U.S. economy, which derives almost 80 percent of GDP from services.
