China’s yawning wealth gap has triggered not only rural resentment over rich urban dwellers but is brewing mass discontent, a Chinese newspaper reported Thursday.
China Daily quoted analysts as warning that although the Chinese economy was now the world’s second largest, the original goal of economic reforms, to achieve common prosperity, remained a distant dream.
“Poverty and backwardness brew social turmoil. The remedy is to put development first to secure economic prosperity, sufficient employment and the smooth flow of wealth,” it quoted Ji Zhengju, a researcher with the Central Compilation and Translation Bureau (CCTB), as saying.
The State Council, China’s cabinet, has decided to set up an overall income distribution plan by the end of 2012.
Zhao Chenggen, a professor with the School of Government of Peking University, said he expected China’s new leadership to decide how economic fruits could be shared by all in a more equitable way.
In urban regions, uneven income distribution and excessive wealth gaps among groups have become a severe problem affecting people’s happiness, the daily said.
“Unfair income distribution has been seen by observers as a major obstacle in deepening the country’s economic reform and growth mode transformation,” it added.
In 2011, the maximum income gap between senior company executives and migrant workers was 4,553 times, according to a report by the ministry of human resources and social security.