The mainland’s wealth gap has widened in the past decades to levels seen in South Africa.
The Gini coefficient of income inequality of China, in 2010, reached 61, whilst that of South Africa is 65. Any number of the Gini coefficient above 40 is regarded as moving into territory where inequality is likely to become a pressing political problem.
Another alarming phenomenon is that 20 years ago, China’s quintile of urban households earned three times as much as the poorest. Today, they earn 1 times as much ( and 30 times as much as the poorest rural households.
~ SCMP, December 11, 2012 ~