The deputy director of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS)' Institute of Population and Labor Economics told a forum in Beijing last Saturday that income differentials are now alarming, according to Chinanews.com December 19.
"Although the income of urban and rural areas has been improved year by year, the income gap among residents in Beijing has become larger and larger and the gap between rich and poor has seriously surpassed the warning limit," said Zhang Chewei.
Speaking at the Forum on Population Development and Harmonious Society, held by the Population Association of Beijing, Zhang said the gap between China and developed countries is obvious and the high number of poor obstructs the construction of a well-off society.
Zhang said the "international warning limit" of a too-big gap between rich and poor is 0.45 on the Gini coefficient, on which scale 0 is perfect equality and 1 perfect inequality.
The figure for Beijing is now up to 0.5 and Zhang said the government should pay great attention to this.
Du Wulu, senior statistician at Beijing Municipal Bureau of Statistics, said that according to figures from January to October, the income of Beijing residents was 11,698 yuan (US$1,435), increasing 12.6 percent compared with last year.
Du said the tendency of income gap enlargement is obvious. In 2002 the ratio between rich and poor incomes was 4.53 to 1; in 2003 it reached 4.7 to 1, and in 2004 5 to 1.
The income gap among different professions has also increased. Du said the highest annual salary of insurance salespeople can reach 240,000 yuan (US$30,000). However, the lowest annual salary of housekeepers was only 6,540 (US$818). Even in the same profession, the salary of managers can be 13 times more than ordinary employees'.
According to Du, this tendency is a new problem of economic development at a very high speed. He thought that, besides subsidies for low-income people, government policies in education, public health and other areas should serve them better.
(China.org.cn by Wang Ke, December 22, 2005)
