Mind the Gap…

In China, according to the latest survey by the Asian Development Bank, the income gap between rich and poor widened sharply last year—more than in any other country in Asia save Nepal. Now it’s true that academic studies suggest that this is fairly normal for a rapidly growing, newly industrializing economy. And anecdotally, my sense remains that as long people all along the income spectrum feel there is forward motion, then politically things remain more or less stable. But this is obviously a huge issue for the central government, one that they pay a lot of attention to. And these conclusions from the ADB aren’t good news.
Here’s the BBC report on the ADB survey:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/business/6936525.stm