As food prices declined last year, incomes in rural areas of China fell even further behind those of city dwellers, according to official statistics. The BBC reports:
The latest statistics from China’s Agriculture Ministry suggest that on average, city dwellers earned 3.36 times more than those in the country.
Equality was one of the demands that helped the Chinese communist party to power nearly 60 years ago.
Now as the world’s third largest economy, China’s rural population are seeing their incomes fall further behind than ever before.
The average wealth gap has now reached 11,100 yuan or $1,620 (£1,100), $200 more than it was in 2007.
For more on this and related topics, see CDT’s News Focus section The Great Divide.