- Chinese officials said on Tuesday that they will seek to regulate high incomes and expand China’s middle class.
- President Xi Jinping said that the country focuses on “common prosperity.”
- Officials also called on high-income earners and companies to give back to society.
- Visit the Business Insider homepage for more stories.
Chinese state media said on Tuesday that China intends to start regulating excessive wealth to ensure domestic “common prosperity” Xinhua News Agency Report. The announcement indicated that China is taking a tougher stance on the country’s unequal distribution of wealth.
According to Xinhua News Agency, the news was announced at the tenth meeting of the Central Finance and Economics Committee. Heads of various ministries and commissions including Premier Li Keqiang of the State Council and Wang Yang, Chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, were present at the meeting.
The government said at the meeting that China implements a loose economic policy to allow some people and regions to get rich first.
The minutes of the meeting showed that officials at the meeting promised to expand China’s middle class and increase the income of low-income groups. Xinhua News AgencyAccording to Xinhua News Agency, in order to distribute wealth more evenly, China will also regulate “excessive income”, although meeting officials did not specify what constitutes “excessive” income. A representative of the Chinese government did not immediately respond to Insider’s request for comment on the matter.
China’s rapid growth over the past 20 years, its GDP Grow From 2.23 trillion US dollars in 2000 to 11.8 trillion US dollars in 2020.Last year, despite the pandemic, China was the only major country registered in the world Economic Growth.
The country also has a huge gap between rich and poor. In 2020, the income of China’s richest 20% will be more than 10 times that of the poorest 20%. BloombergIn 2018, the income of the richest 10% of the country’s population accounted for 41% of the total income, while the income of the poorest 50% of the population only accounted for 14.4% of the total income. World Inequality Database.
Since taking office in 2012, Xi Jinping has set the goal of building a “well-off society” and promised to eradicate extreme poverty within ten years. In 2020, this country of 1.4 billion people claimed to have achieved this goal within 8 years, lifting nearly 100 million people out of extreme poverty. The report said British Broadcasting CorporationBut experts dispute the veracity of this statement, partly because China’s definition of the poverty line is US$1.69, while the World Bank’s definition is US$1.90. Reuters.
