China’s 220 million rural households were offered state-funded discounts on the purchase of two large household appliances, such as televisions, air conditioners, washing machines and refrigerators.25 As the average rural household earned less than 16,000 renminbi (RMB—though used interchangeably with yuan, RMB refers to the Chinese currency as such, whereas yuan are the units in which sums are measured) in 2008, buying a computer or color TV for 7,000 RMB was a big step.
