How to best narrow the income gap

The recent joint report by UBS and PricewaterhouseCoopers says China has about 200 billionaires, almost one-third the number in the United States, while a report by China Merchants Bank and Bain shows the number of people with assets of more than 10 million yuan ($1.61 million) crossed 1 million at the end of 2014. And according to a National Health and Family Planning Commission survey, the income of China's top 20 percent high-income families is 19 times that of the lowest 20 percent low-income families.

The question is: Can the income gap be narrowed through individual income tax?

Different views of fairness influence the choice of social policies. Today, most Chinese people do not accept the economically inefficient equalitarian view of fairness, because a society in which everybody earns the same amount of money lacks vitality and creativity, because contributions that increase social wealth fail to be recognized.