After rapid expansion since 2003, the income gap in China has reached the second most serious “Yellow Light” level, or alert level, says an article on state media…
It says the United Nations Development Program released statistics that show the Gini coefficient, a statistical measure of inequality in which zero expresses complete equality while one expresses complete inequality, has reached 0.45 in China; 20 percent of China’s population at the poverty end accounts for only 4.7 percent of the total income or consumption; 20 percent of China’s population at the affluence end accounts for 50 percent of the total income or consumption.
The article says the income gap, which has exceeded reasonable limits, exhibits a further widening trend. If it continues this way for a long time, the phenomenon may give rise to various sorts of social instability.