Gap between rich and poor in China has been increased dramatically. A recent report showed that 0.4% of Chinese hold 70% of the overall wealth in China. The concentration of wealth is greater than the United States.
The study indicates the extremely high concentration of wealth would lead to the abnormal consumption and social class in China. Some experts pointed out that at China has become the nation with the highest concentration of wealth in the world. The growth of China’s wealth concentration is approximately 12.3% each year, the figure is twice the global average growth rate.
According to the June 10 article on FORBES “The Research on Luxury Merchandise Market in China”, when the global economy is going into recession, China has become to be the most optimistic market for the international luxury brands. By the end of May 2009, a luxury residential building in Shenzhen China was launched to the market and all units were sold out in one day. At an average cost of 120,000 yuan per square meter (approximately $1678 Canadian per square inch)
High housing prices have become a major obstacle to the growth of the middle class in China, the widening income gap is starting to hurt the middle class.
China’s gap between rich and poor has been quite obvious among the Asian countries. Scholars and experts in China are very concerned about this phenomenon, worried that China’s over-concentration of wealth is bound to bring serious social problems.