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The country's widening income gap is drawing increasing public concern.

According to a study by a group of research fellows with the State Development Planning Commission, a great disparity in the distribution of income exists in today's China. The study indicated that China has ranked among the 40 regions and countries in the world whose income gap has surpassed the internationally recognized alarm level, which is higher than that of most European developed countries and matches that of the United States.

The gap between rich and poor is predicted to continue to widen in the nation.

And while some think the gap is a natural result of economic restructuring, some are saying it is unfair because a number of the newly rich have attained their money by foul means.

A recent edition of the Beijing-based Beijing Review magazine carried comments from several experts on the controversial problem.

Wu Jinglian, one of the most prestigious economists in China, said people should attach more importance to fairness when it comes to economic development.

Unequal opportunities lead to easy access to irregular incomes and corruption, Wu said.

For example, many cases of corruption involve deals between power and money, which is especially prominent in the administrative approval system, under which officials control certain enterprise resources such as licenses and listing quotas, saying they are particularly prone to corruption.

To reverse this picture, the government has taken government procurement system. Bidding system is widely used when an enterprise purchase resources. This system has played a very important role in stamping out corruption and stemming irregular incomes in some enterprises.

Wu said in the era of a knowledge economy, people without higher education will definitely suffer in competition. Providing people with equal opportunities in education and a sound social security system also can play an important role in narrowing income gap.

Taxation alone is not enough to bridge the gap between the rich and poor. The government should strengthen its education and social security systems to ensure everybody has an equal chance to realize his/her dream, he urged.

"I believe progress in the reform drive will gradually narrow the existing income gap, rather than widen it" the Beijing Review quoted Wu as saying.

However, Li Yining, another leading economist, holds a totally different view.

"Between fairness and development, the latter should always be the first choice," the prestigious professor at Peking University asserted.

Li said an egalitarian idea is more dangerous than the current unequal distribution.

Egalitarianism is the vestige of a planned economy, a dominant economic structure in China in the past decades. It favours equal shares of everything to everybody and thus no income gap, and takes no account of the different performances of labourers.

As a result of the market-oriented reforms in China, the incomes of Chinese citizens has begun to differ and naturally it has caused psychological pressure, noted Li.

Seeing people in the same street, the same school or the same village become rich while their own incomes remains low, some people naturally lose their equilibrium. The prevalence of such a mentality could hinder economic development, Li warned.

In some industries and enterprises, talented people and outstanding staff are given incentives such as stocks or bonuses and thus increase their incomes.

But in this case society is the biggest beneficiary because such exemplary personnel will contribute to technological progress and economic prosperity. The public should understand this, said Li.

"Income disparity is favourable to economic development," he added.

Liu Chengyou, a columnist, opposes Li in the Beijing Review, saying he is misleading the public.

What concerns the public is not whether everybody has an equal share, but whether the distribution of wealth is fair, Liu pointed out.

"By replacing unfairness with inequality and then criticizing egalitarianism, Li is attempting to divert public attention in order to evade the real point," he said.

The late Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping suggested that a portion of Chinese citizens should be encouraged to get rich first and then they should help those lagging behind attain a common prosperity.

Such a development pattern is in line with the situation in China. Some people are now leading well-off lives after years of hard work.

However, have all of them been honest in their pursuit of wealth? Liu queried.

What people hate most today are upstarts who have benefited from power-for-money deals, he pointed out.

China is undergoing profound social and economic restructuring, its legal construction is finding it hard to catch up with the economic progress and many systems are still immature. Consequently some people are taking advantage of the legal and systematical loopholes and making power-for-money deals wantonly.

While their personal property is growing in geometric progression, the prevalence of under-the-counter operations in project contracting, speculation in the restructuring of State firms, and other illegal activities have caused huge public asset losses, said Liu.

In sharp contrast to the luxurious living standards of those who have made their money through ill means is the large number of laid-off workers who are enduring great hardship. "This is typical of the unfairness in income distribution," he said.

People admire those who have acquired their wealth using their wisdom and lawful means.

However, some people in China have used illegal means or cashed in on administrative monopolies to obtain their wealth quickly.

This is unacceptable to the public, said Liu.

It is imperative to address the problem of fairness. The key job is to improve the current distribution system and plug loopholes in the law, Liu urged.

Different people have different rates of success because their intelligence and ability varies. Nevertheless, people will accept an income gap as long as fairness is guaranteed, said Liu.