Lawmakers try to spread rising wealth
8/3/2005 8:19
Even with 8 percent economic growth forecast for this year, China
faces tough challenges as it tries to soothe growing discontent among its
citizens over the widening wealth gap, corruption and social inequality.
At
the ongoing annual session of the national legislature, Premier Wen Jiabao said
his government is working hard to resolve some of the chief problems affecting
the people by building ''a harmonious socialist society,'' echoing the call set
forth at the Fourth Plenum of the 16th the Communist Party of China Central
Committee in September 2004 and repeatedly underscored by President Hu Jintao
and other Chinese leaders.
Such goals pledged by top authorities are usually
addressed immediately by an all-out national effort.
One of the most
difficult problems to solve lies in wealth distribution, authorities said.
According to a recent survey of 50,000 urban households by the Institute of
Sociology under the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, the richest 10 percent
have an annual per capita income of 13,322 yuan (US$1,600) while the poorest 10
percent earn only about 1,400 yuan.
China's wealth gap is also shown in
figures released by the United Nations Development Program. The poorest 20
percent of China's population shared only 4.7 percent of overall income and
consumption in 2004, with the richest 20 percent taking half the
total.
Economists usually expect a nation's wealth gap to narrow after its
per-capital gross domestic product breaks the US$1,000 threshold.
An
oversupply of labor and the siphoning off of funds through corruption are two
main factors affecting wealth distribution, according to Li Peilin, deputy
director of the Academy of Social Sciences' Sociology Institute.
The noted
scientist urged the government to adjust its policies on finance, taxation and
social welfare to check the growing wealth gap.
Among other indications of
problems, urbanites in China felt less safe in 2004 compared with the two
previous years, according to a recent survey conducted by Horizon Research, an
independent pollster.
Many of the city residents surveyed said the growing
number of migrant laborers made them feel somewhat unsafe. Some migrant
laborers, many of whom have lost their land, are not paid by their city
employers and might take inappropriate action to express their dissatisfaction,
authorities said.
Land seizure constitutes a lethal threat to rural
stability, they added. Because they were not fairly compensated for the land
they lost, some farmers in Tangshan, in north China's Hebei Province, lodged
protests against their local government, appealing to higher authorities to
penalize the officials involved, for instance.
A sociology academy poll of
720 rural protesters in Beijing last summer found that 73 percent of the
complaints centered on land seizures.
Experts estimated that some victimized
farmers received only 5 to 10 percent of their land's value as
compensation.
Professor yu Jianrong of the social science academy's Institute
of Rural Development said improper land seizure represents the biggest problem
in China's countryside over the past couple years.
Meanwhile, some factory
workers were also angered by the actions of their bosses at state-owned
enterprises. The management sometimes siphoned state assets via irregular
buyouts, ignoring workers' interests. Mistreated employees may participate in
actions that destabilize society, including mass protests in defiance of local
governments, authorities said.
Corruption among some high-ranking officials
is drawing citizen anger as well. From 2003 to 2004, a handful of officials
above the provincial or ministerial level were penalized for embezzling public
funds or taking bribes.
(Xinhua)
Xinhua
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