China's income inequality in the global context

Summary Although China's GDP has become the world's second largest, China's long-term economic growth with high speed and long-lasting “efficiency first” policy guidance, has brought China into a complicated situation, therein serious inequality exists in China and it has become one of the most serious problems in China nowadays. This paper focuses on China's inequality issues in the context of the world, especially on comparison between China and the European countries, concerning of our common pursuit for socialist values. Comparative method is widely used in the paper. Gini Coefficient and Percentage of Total Income of National Population by Income Quintile are utilized as main indicators, and the two results just mutually verify each other. We find that the huge inequality in China does not fit into the title of socialist country and its socialist extent is far less than the European's, even inferior to typical capitalist countries. Finally, we make a ladder target of the Gini coefficient standards for Chinese government to keep constraint by oneself.