Chinese upper class growing

By Tan Yingzi (China Daily)
Updated: 2009-06-18 07:47

More than half of nearly 800 wealthy Chinese recently polled believe the widening gap between the rich and poor is also creating an emerging upper class in the country.

A woman walks past posters of a high-end fashion store in Shanghai, June 11, 2009. [CFP]

The survey, carried out by lifestyle magazine Best Life, interviewed 792 rich Chinese in 62 cities from 27 provinces through local chambers of commerce. Those interviewed were private entrepreneurs with personal assets of more than 10 million yuan ($1.4 million).

More than 80 percent of those polled also said the income gap between rich and poor in the country was too wide, the magazine reported this week.

"In recent years, the huge gap between rich and poor has become an indisputable fact in China," Li Wei, director of the social development department at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS), told China Daily Wednesday.

"Our research has repeatedly shown this and it is not surprising that rich people themselves feel the same way," Li said.

Those polled in the latest survey defined the upper class in a variety of ways. Some said the upper class included the yuppie group, while others said the upper class terminology refers to high-society networks, luxurious lifestyles and even greater social responsibility, the magazine reported.

The country's widening income disparity is considered to be one of its most pressing social problems, with the average income of 20 percent of the richest Chinese families 17 times higher than the poorest households, the CASS reported in its 2009 Blue Book on Chinese Society.

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