19th CPC Congress: CPC Points at Inequality in China as One of Key Problems

China has all the makings of a superpower, yet there is rising inequality within China. This has become one of the key issues that the 19th Party Congress had to address. Commentaries in the People’s Daily, the newspaper of the Communist Party of China (CPC) have focused on the importance attached to this by the CPC especially during the ongoing Congress.

As the world’s second-largest economy, biggest trader in goods and largest holder of foreign exchange reserves, the country contributed more than 30 percent to global economic growth, says a commentary in the People’s Daily, the newspaper of the Communist Party of China (CPC).

“China has also managed to lift more than 700 million people out of poverty since the launch of the reform and opening-up, and a moderately prosperous society will soon be established,” it adds.

But, Chinese society is facing a new and deepening problem: inequality. The CPC has been debating this over the years and the Chinese state also has adopted policies that try to limit this chasm. Its seriousness was highlighted when President Xi Jinping referred to it when addressing the 19th Congress. Typically, it was raised in a unique way.

"What we now face is the contradiction between unbalanced and inadequate development and the people's ever-growing needs for a better life," Xi said.

People’s Daily explained this by saying that in many regions of China, people are not getting what they aspire for, whether it be best education, best hospitals, pollution free atmosphere, or even “a California vacation, a villa in Sydney”. It even linked it to some people’s desire for a life in other countries.

Giving an example of both problems facing people and the degree of inequality, People’s Daily gave the example of Beijing.

“A store inside the Jingxi Hotel in downtown Beijing, where many Party delegates stay during the congress, sells face masks, including a type with an electric filter priced at 398 yuan (60 U.S. dollars). "For your health, please wear a mask on smoggy days," a sign reads. Taking a stroll outside Jingxi, one finds old, nondescript apartments selling for more than 80,000 yuan per sq meter.”

Serving the majority of the people is what distinguishes socialism from capitalism, which only protects the interests of a selected few, Karl Marx said some 150 years ago, People’s Daily writes. Common prosperity is the hallmark of socialism.

“Development between various Chinese regions varies sharply. In southwest mountainous Guizhou Province, whose delegates were joined Thursday by Xi in a panel discussion, household incomes remain very low,” it wrote.

The average income in Guizhou was 15,121 yuan last year, less than a third that in Shanghai. The gap in personal wealth between the haves and the have-nots is of no less concern. The country's three richest men -- two Internet gurus and one property magnate -- are each worth more than 30 billion dollars according to the latest Hurun rankings. Meanwhile, millions of people struggle to get by on less than a dollar a day.

CPC policy aims for more balanced, better quality development across regions and sectors and is expected to remain that way for some time to come, perhaps until the principal contradiction shifts again.