About 90 percent of Chinese believe the polarization between the
rich and poor is "serious" in China, according to a survey.
And more than 80 percent of the respondents surveyed said
something must be done to narrow the expanding gap between the rich
and poor, while 14.1 percent said it was unnecessary.
The China Youth Daily, which conducted the survey
together with Sina.com, reported that more than half of the
respondents said the Chinese should stick together despite the
widening gap.
The polarization has aroused wide concern among the public in
recent years.
While the white collars in Beijing are planning a New Year trip
to Hong Kong or Thailand, many others are trying to scrimp and save
and worrying about increasing costs in medical care and food.
The State Development and Reform Commission said the Gini
Coefficient, a measure of income inequality, had reached 0.47 for
China, up from 0.29 two decades ago.
Usually, a country with a ratio exceeding 0.4 is warned to pay
more attention to the inequality issue.
To find out the people's view, the survey covered 10,250
respondents, between the ages of 20 and 30 with a college education
and a monthly salary between 1,000 and 3,000 yuan
(US$120-US$360).
Surprisingly, most disagreed with the view of experts who claim
the urban-rural disparity is causing the widening gap.
More than 70 percent of the respondents believed that "the group
of special interests" is the prime reason for the polarization.
Followed by "people in power" 68 percent, and "bosses" 50
percent.
Another unexpected finding almost all agreed that a good
educational background and knowledge were not the decisive factors
in gaining wealth.
About 95 percent said rich people are not necessarily those who
are able to speak English or have a college education.
Today in China, rich people, accounting for 10 percent of the
population, control 45 percent of the total social fortune, and
poor people, also 10 percent of the population, only control 1.4
percent, according to an investigation published by the National
Bureau of Statistics last June.
There are 130 million poor people in China, most earning less
than US$1 a day, according to the World Bank.
(China Daily December 26, 2006)