Widening Wealth Gap

Posted on 13 September 2010.

Average per-capita income for the richest 10 percent of China's citizens is 65 times that of the poorest 10 percent, according to a survey by the China Society of Economic Reform.

"The wealth gap is widening, and the distribution of national income is becoming more and more unfair," the survey concluded (Reuters).

Other statistics bear out this discovery. For example, luxury retailers Richemont and Swatch Group report that China now accounts for 20 and 28 percent of sales respectively, whereas for more ordinary brands like Volkswagen and Pepsi China makes up just three and five percent of sales.

In education, which has traditionally provided one of the best opportunities for advancement in China, children from poorer backgrounds are becoming marginalised. The most recent available statistics show that of China's top two universities, Beijing University had a rural population of 16.3 percent in 1999 (down from 50 to 60 percent in the 1950s), while Qinghua University had a rural population of 17.6 percent in 2000. Today, reports a professor at Beijing University, "We can hardly find anyone with a rural household registration" (Newsweek). And this in a country where 56 percent of the college-age population are based in the countryside.

"As resources become more and more concentrated into the hands of people with power and money, it's more and more difficult for regular families to get into elite universities," says a Qinghua University graduate.

"The problems with peasant education are manifest," reports Newsweek. "Farming villages aren't great places to live, so they have a tough time attracting good teachers... Many teachers in rural areas who have college degrees actually only have them from continuing-education programs, which don't really provide an education... As long as China finds no better way to educate its rural poor, it's staring down a future with a 100 million-strong underclass."

Pray for those who feel left behind in the race for riches and unable to escape from their "peasant" background.

Pray for young students from rural areas to be helped and encouraged to gain a good education.

Pray for good teachers to catch a vision for bringing quality education to rural villages and to be willing to endure hardship to fulfil this aim.

Pray that those from privileged backgrounds might not look down on those less fortunate than themselves, but rather be generous in helping others who have not had the same advantages as they have.