They're not poor. Across large parts of their land area, they're an industrialized country now. They have a middle class as large as the entire United States

They're not poor. Across large parts of their land area, they're an industrialized country now. They have a middle class as large as the entire United States population. That said: most Chinese don't own cars, or eat meat with every meal, or live in 2000 ft^2 fully heated McMansions in cold terrain. In short, most of them live more ecologically efficient lifestyles by default. Oh, and they instituted population control decades ago. Nowadays, a poor country is probably somewhere in Africa or Southeast Asia. Not much of the world is "starving children everywhere" poor anymore.