'Rich China' report sparks controversy

• Source: Global Times
• [21:31 April 14 2009]

Egalitarian mindset

As China is emerging as a more powerful country, various reports and ratings about the income of Chinese citizens have become more common.

Most, however, tend to believe China is still generally poor, in terms of living standards.

The World Bank actually ranked China’s per capita income in 2007 as being as low as Cameroon and Guatemala, according to Reuters.

At least 8% of China’s population is still struggling under the international poverty line. As doubt in NBS report spreads, Ding Yifan, deputy director of the World Development Research Institute at the Development Research Center of the State Council, believes the figures are correct, and he values what they represent.

“The data is meaningful in macroeconomic areas, which serves as a reference for policymakers,”Ding said.

Ding also speculated on the cause of the suspicions. “Because of the large income gap in terms of regions, careers and ages, the data makes no sense within microeconomic areas,”he said. “The total economic amount of China now has absolutely surpassed that of any historical period, but if we compare with other countries, we are still not the richest.”

Commenting on using the 250,000-yuan figure as a standard for the rich, Ding said,“Rich is difficult to define, because people have different ideas. However, taking purchasing power into consideration, the annual family income of 250,000 yuan is a big sum.”

An Baijie and Huang Jingjing also contributed to this story