In the past two decades, the Chinese economy has undergone
many drastic reforms in an effort to compete more effectively on the
international market. These reforms included allowing foreign banks to offer
credit cards to Chinese citizens. Now, researchers at the University of
Missouri have found about 30 percent of Chinese urban households now own at
least one credit card and the growth rate of credit card adoption has been an
average of 40 percent per year between 2004 and 2009.