World Watch: China's growing rich-poor gap
SHANGHAI–To understand how views are changing in once egalitarian-minded China, consider Li Yi, an international relations graduate student at prestigious Fudan University. He wants what he sees as the good things in life–the latest electronics, international travel, perhaps a car, even eventually an apartment that may cost $100,000 to buy.
"For me," he says, "money is very, very, very important."
So, after graduation, Li hopes to take advantage of China's economic liberalization, perhaps by working for a foreign-owned joint venture or a privately owned Chinese company, seeking to cash in on the economic transformation underway in China that increasingly bypasses the old state-owned companies. He says he is excited by the kinds of opportunities provided by China's increasingly market-oriented economy.
Indeed, the economic boom here is making it possible for some Chinese to reach an income level unattainable–even unimaginable–a generation ago.
At the same time, officials acknowledge that the embrace of capitalist reforms has opened the door to enormous corruption that accounts for some of the new affluence evident in Shanghai and other cities.
Even as some Chinese, particularly in the big cities, are able to earn more, many others, notably those in rural areas and the less developed areas of western China, are being left behind. The result is a widening gap between rich and poor that is attracting growing comment from top officials. In recent days, China's government-controlled media have cited reports that the income gap is reaching a "yellow light" level that could fuel further worker protests.
"Unless effective measures are taken, the gap may drift further to dangerous 'red light' levels in the next five years," according to a report cited by Study Times, a publication of the Communist Party's influential Party School.
These concerns aren't new, and publicly airing them may reflect the Communist leadership's effort to cast the growing number of protests around the country as reflecting economic concerns rather than calls for political change. China's top leaders, such as President Hu Jintao, have spoken publicly about paying greater attention to the needs of the poor in order to maintain what officials call "social harmony," a code word that means avoiding unrest that could challenge the grip of the Communist leadership. In some cases, officials have portrayed a widening rich-poor gap as a natural byproduct of the evolution to a market economy.
Incomes are rising for both rich and poor but are rising faster for the relatively affluent. According to United Nations statistics, the most affluent 20 percent in China receive half the nation's income, while the poorest 20 percent receive 4.7 percent–a slightly greater income disparity than in the United States and a much wider rich-poor gap than in European countries. Last year, according to government figures, the average urban income was $1,164, versus $362 in rural areas.
But the statistics don't fully convey the rise of a slice of the population that enjoys the benefits of growing affluence. On any evening, tens of thousands of Chinese throng to Nanjing Road, the city's major pedestrian shopping street, and to glitzy new shopping malls, where they may buy such things as Nike shoes and digital cameras, sip Starbucks coffee, and enjoy $4 scoops of Haagen-Dazs ice cream. These things are not cheap at a time when a new university graduate is fortunate to earn $300 to $500 a month. Still, it is evident that there are many Chinese now with a considerable amount of money to spend, even if they are a small minority in a nation of 1.3 billion that includes some 30 million living in abject poverty.
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