Income gap widens alarmingly
(Xinhua)Updated: 2006-12-26 17:16
But at the same time, China has turned from being one of the most egalitarian
countries in the world to a nation with one of the biggest wealth
gaps.
Statistics from the World Bank show that China's Gini Coefficient,
the leading measure of income inequality, surged from 0.29 in 1981 to the
current 0.47, exceeding the internationally-recognized alarm level of
0.40.
Tang Min, chief economist of the Asian Development Bank Resident
Mission in China, warned that any further widening of the wealth gap may reduce
the public's support for the reform and opening-up policy, and may even lead to
social turmoil.
Jia Kang said that China should tolerate the disparity
in legal incomes. "After all, most Chinese earn their living through legal
means. An immediate priority for the government should be to root out illegal
income and make sure every one competes equally."
Over the past few
years, the government has taken a series of measures to limit the widening
wealth gap, including eradicating agriculture taxes collected from farmers,
providing subsidies to grain producers, and increasing the minimum wage to
benefit millions of migrant workers.
Data from the Ministry of Finance
show that the central government spent more than 1.1 trillion yuan from 2003 to
2006 on agriculture and farmers, with an average year-on-year increase of 15.6
percent.
According to the 11th five-year (2006-2010) plan, China will
channel more money into the construction of infrastructure in rural
areas.
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