Social disparities

Reports from China at the end of the 1950s could hardly have been worse. Some experts speak of the largest famine the world has ever seen. The mass starvation, which ended up killing an estimated 43 million people, was a byproduct of Mao Zedong's "Great Leap Forward," a political campaign to modernize China's steel industry.

Now, with the country's rapid economic growth, those harsh times seem to be nothing more than a fading memory. The United Nations' World Food Programme ended its help for China in the year 2005 and Beijing is even making financial contributions of its own to international organizations to fight world hunger. The country's gross national product is higher than that of the Ukraine and Egypt. China's is possibly the world's greatest success story in the fight against world hunger ever.

Reform policies

As Chinese Primer Wen Jiabao put it, China, with the world's largest population, has been experiencing growth and development since the year 1978, with the introduction of the party's reform politics and economic integration. "We have managed to reduce the number of people living in absolute poverty from 250 million to 15 million people in less than 30 years."

Poverty analysis confirms that. Poverty indicators such as child mortality rates, which in the 1950s were ten times higher than today, and literacy rates – today 99 percent for people between the ages of 15-24, according to the World Bank – have improved significantly.

But while most Chinese people are materially better off than they were 50 years ago, social disparities have grown considerably throughout the country. There is an east-west and an urban-rural gap; While the coasts are home to modern high-tech cities, inland populations are still fighting with massive problems in infrastructure and the number and quality of schools and hospitals. The average income of a person living in Shanghai is about three times higher than that of someone in the western Gansu province. Within the cities there are alarming discrepancies between the rich and poor, the poorest of whom are usually the so-called migrant workers – people from rural areas who migrate to big cities in search of work.

Migrant workers

Xu Zongye and Zhang Yongliang are two such workers who migrated from the province Jiangsu. They live together in a tiny attic in Shanghai, where they have no bathroom or toilet. Xu says on some days she only has an average of 20 euro cents to spend on food. "I spend the money on noodles, which is usually enough for two meals." Zhang points out that such little money can only buy a limited variety of food. "A pound of vegetables costs 20 cents in the morning and five cents less in the evening because it is not as fresh. I buy cabbage and beets; everything else is too expensive," Zhang explains.

Experts say the gap between the affluent and impoverished, which, according to recent surveys, is now larger than that in the United States, will pose a major challenge for China. Though the country is experiencing an unprecedented boom, blue-collar workers and farmers are hardly profiting. On the contrary, today's inflation is creating a bigger hole than ever in their pockets. The price of food had risen by over 13 percent within just one year. Yet the wealthy are growing richer, as attested by the growing number of luxury cars on city streets.

Rampant corruption

State officials and party cadres, on the other hand, are earning higher wages than ever, as corruption in the political system is rampant.

Liu Kaiming is from the southern city of Shenzhen. The workers rights advocate points out, "between the years 1978 and 2008, the Chinese economy has had an average annual growth rate of 9.7 percent. Despite that, the majority of Chinese citizens still lives in poverty. 60 percent of the population lives on less than five US dollars per day. That just goes to show that only the government, the party and possibly the military are profiting from our economic growth." Liu refers to the situation as a tragedy and the "root" of all China's current problems.

With its ongoing economic success, the Chinese boom has the potential to raise the standard of living even for its poorest. If not, Beijing will be confronted with a whole new set of social problems.

Author: Markus Rimmele / sb
Editor: Manasi Gopalakrishnan