Income inequality on the rise in China

I was reading Al Jazeera English, because they cover global issues much better than CNN or NBC, and come across this piece on income inequality in China.

Income Inequality on the Rise in China

More than half of China's workers now live in urban areas, as rural migrants move to cities for better employment options. According to official figures, there are now 252 million migrant workers, many of whom now live in the country's cities. They usually are not entitled to healthcare, a pension or free education for their children under China's household registration system or hukou, which divides citizens into urban and rural residents and allocates public services accordingly. -Jennifer Duggan

Is anyone here knowledgeable on economics or Chinese politics? Is this something that is going to worsen as the global economy shrinks and other nations begin producing goods as cheap as China once could?

Hello Julian


Very interesting article.

I'm ignorant about both economics and China, but I don't let things like that stop me!

From reading the article I got the impression it's at least in part because social policy hasn't caught up with the speed of economic change, and that there's hope the new government will tackle this. How accurate or realistic that is I've no idea. The hukou thing certainly looks like it belongs to a different era, and is more like how immigrants get treated in some countries.

Welcome aboard Julian. I know a fair bit about the economic train China is soon about to experience but don't have time to go into details now. Check back in a couple hours, and thanks for starting this thread.