From Chinese Press

Reduce income gap

(China Daily)
Updated: 2011-02-18 08:17

The Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security's Institute of Labor and Wage is trying to reduce the salary gap in different industries (which was up to 15 times in 2008) to 4.7 times by reinterpreting data. Now that authorities are making efforts to narrow the income gap, research scholars at the institute should stop playing with figures and words, says an article in Qilu Evening News. Excerpts:

There is disparity in income distribution in China, and the gap between the rich and the poor, rural and urban residents and among different industries is widening.

China's GDP has surpassed that of Japan, and the country has become the second largest economy in the world. But the country's per capita GDP is rather low, and 150 million Chinese people still live below the UN's poverty line.

In fact, at the last National People's Congress meeting, almost all the delegates appealed to the government to raise the income of urban and rural residents both. Under such circumstances, institutes conducting research on income distribution should find proper ways to narrow the gap instead of using figures to shift the public's focus to avoid conflict.

Common people are eagerly looking forward to the income distribution reform. Hopefully, the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security would help expedite the reform plan to narrow the huge income gap.

(China Daily 02/18/2011 page9)