Su Hainan, Director of the Labor Wages Research Center under the Ministry of Labor and Social Security, disagreed with the statement that "the income distribution in China is quite uneven". He pointed out that the rural-urban income gap can be viewed from various perspectives and methods, and therefore there is no need to mechanically apply the Gini coefficient to the China context.

Su Hainan, Director of the Labor Wages Research Center under the Ministry of Labor and Social Security. [baidu.com]

Lou Jiwei, Vice Minister of Finance, pointed out recently that the Gini coefficient reflects China's current income distribution gap is 0.46, indicating that the income distribution is quite uneven. However, from the rural-urban perspective, the difference in income between the two areas is not so great. Therefore, he believes that although the current Gini coefficient is comparatively large, the relative impact is not so big.

During an interview, Su Hainan expressed that there are many perspectives and methods to look at the urban-rural income gap. According to the internationally-applied Gini coefficient, if the value is with the range from 0.4 to 0.6, it means an unreasonable distribution; and if the value is over 0.6, it indicates an unfair social distribution. Nevertheless, there are a few types of data vis-¨¤-vis the Gini coefficient in China, and therefore the Gini coefficient does not need to be applied mechanically to the situation in China.

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