Xinhuanet (extracted from "China set to narrow rich-poor gap", 4 December 2006

"China's economy is likely to be heading for another year of galloping development, but how to make more Chinese people reaping the benefits is still a challenge for the government."

[Ed I doubt that the Chinese government will succeed. All techno-economic revolutions initially produce widening income gaps as the smartest (and the fortunate) take advantage of the new circumstances. What is happening now in China is the same as happened in England during the early half of the 19th century before the workers started hauling themselves up to middle-class earnings by about the mid-20th century (and when, very frequently in industry, they earned considerably more than their managers). We in the Western world were then overtaken by the computer revolution and a vast extension in automation and rationalisation, firstly in industry and then in the retail and non-personal services. This, since about 1985, has produced a new widening income gap and it is a moot point whether this one will ever become narrowed again. But even if it does then it doesn't augur well for China's hopes. At present they have both revolutions running concurrently. It is perhaps significant that, in the last three years, the Communist Party (the principal recruiting department of the Government) has opened its doors (at the highest levels) to the nouveau riche even if they do not believe in Marxism.]