I lived in China for a few years, and finally left early this year. Standard of living has been declining ever since I arrived, for me and for my local friends, many of them that were from other provinces that came to Shanghai. The declining factors included:
1.) Increasingly worse air pollution. It was not smart to exercise outdoors in the summer or winter.
2.) Increasingly worse water pollution (even reported by the state media). The frequency of diarrhea keeps going up.
3.) Increasingly worse food supply (there was a scandal of a company in northern China that used toxic industrial agents in common food items for 10!! years)
4.) Lack of jobs for migrants. Alot of them had to head back home to their farms.
5.) Censorship Censorship Censorship. Not a day went by that I wasn't frustrated with my VPN not being able to hit a western site.
6.) Inflation. Everything is more and more expensive, in tier 1, 2, 3, and even 88 cities. But standards haven't gone up.
7.) Anyone rich is trying to get out. Australia, US, Canada, anywhere.
Lastly, 8.) Chinese government regressing into a dictatorship, with the possibility of Xi Jin Ping taking a 3rd term.