China's growing income gap may trigger social instability after 2010 if the government is unable to mitigate glaring disparity, experts have warned.
A team at the China Ministry of Labour and Social Security recently delivered the warning in a newly designed system detailing statistics for income distribution in the world's most populous country.
Calling upon the government to be alert over growing income disparities, the team found that the income gap in China has been expanding since 2003, despite some measures in place to raise income levels among the poor.
The team, headed by Su Hannan, president of the ministry's Income Research Institute, has used "blue-, green-, yellow- and red-lights" to predict income disparity trends.
The yellow light warns the government to be alert and the red one means the disparity is totally unacceptable, 'China Daily' reported.
"Income disparity in China is in the yellow-light area now. We are going to hit the red-light scenario after 2010 if there are no effective solutions in the next few years," the paper quoted the team as saying.
They found little reason to be optimistic about bridging the urban-rural income gap. Incomes in cities are growing at eight to nine per cent annually, while the rate in rural areas has averaged a year-on-year growth of four to five per cent.
The National Bureau of Statistics forecast over the weekend that per capita urban income this year is likely to surpass 10,000 yuan ($1,234).
"The government's top priority is to make those farmers still in poverty earn more," the team concludes in a report.
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