Beijing (AsiaNews) – The growing gap between well-to-do urban citizens and the much poorer classes of Chinese rural communities is one of the worst in the world, equal to that of Zimbabwe. The problem is a source of tension throughout Chinese society and worries many Chinese leaders and intellectuals. 

The Chinese Academy of Social Sciences published a study this week on the results of 20 years of economic reform. The conclusion was that city dwellers earn 2.8 times more than citizens living in rural areas.  

According to one of the report's authors, Li Shi, "the costs of healthcare and education have gone up in rural communities and unemployment in China makes the gap in incomes in cities and rural towns the highest in the world."

Furthermore, city residents receive subsidized education, healthcare and welfare, whereas in rural towns and villages there are no such government programs and most investments are concentrated in cities. Investments in rural areas are in short supply.   

An attorney for the Seattle-based Rural Development Institute, Brian Schwarzwalder, said, "It is quite an embarrassing and sad situation for a country that declares itself  to be socialist, in a country where economic disparity is much higher than that of most other countries."    

There are over 900 million farmers in China who find themselves in conditions of poverty and desperation. Most of them live on less than a dollar a day, while city dwellers purchase homes and luxury automobiles.

According to Li Jingwen, a fellow at the Academy of Social Sciences, many farmers work small plots of land, and thus find it quite difficult to advance to industrial levels of production, which would provide them a rapid increase in income as well as develop agriculture and the rural economy in general.

The income level of rural citizens has always been lower than that of urban residents. Yet the gap has increased drastically over the last 20 years. In 1980 a city resident earned on average 1.8 times more than someone living in the Chinese countryside. In 2001 the difference in salaries grew to 3.1 times more, while the cost of living was six times higher.  

The unequal distribution of income is seen even within rural communities themselves. For example, in 2001 the richest farmers residing in China's coastal regions earned on average 3266 yuan (around 400 euro); however farmers from China's heartland earned double that amount while those living in the country's poorest western regions earned only about 1600 yuan.     

Many farmers are forced to move to cities in search of work, as they are not able to earn an adequate living. In cities quite often they take on unstable, underpaid jobs, without contracts, security or safe working conditions. According to the All China Federation of Trade Unions, the combined income of nearly 100 million migrant workers together –many of them farmers – is around 100 billion yuan (about 12.5 billon euro).       

The gap in income between rural and urban citizens is one of the main issues up for discussion at next month's National People's Assembly. Meanwhile, this month government authorities released a statement, promising to increase aid to rural communities to 150 billion yuan and cut taxes on farming. The objective is to spark development in rural areas and keep citizens from having to go to cities to find jobs.  

Schwarzwalder says the only way the Chinese government can increase the income of farmers is to grant them property ownership rights. Currently Beijing guarantees farmers the use of land for 30 years and since 2002 has allowed them to purchase land use rights. Yet for now no farmer in China has ever acquired such property rights, as local authorities still have the power to "redistribute" land, should land be given over to relatives and friends while farmers look for find work in cities. Frequently local police confiscate their land at will.  (MR)

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• farmers
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