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On Defense, France Bites the Bullet, But Avoids Strategic Insolvency May 7, 2013
Iceland’s Recovery Saga Presents Opportunities for Brussels, Washington—and Beijing May 6, 2013
Which Way Forward for Europe’s Hybrid Regimes? May 2, 2013
The Arab Revolts and the Liberal Order May 2, 2013
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GMF celebrates its 40 year history and Founder and Chairman, Dr. Guido Goldman at Gala Dinner May 09, 2013 / Washington, DCGMF held a celebratory gala dinner at the United States Institute of Peace in Washington, Wednesday May 8.
In this podcast, GMF Vice President of Programs Ivan Vejvoda discusses last month's historic agreement to normalize relations between Kosovo and Serbia.
Anchor Elaine Reyes speaks with Andrew Small, Transatlantic Fellow of the Asia Program for the German Marshall Fund, about Beijing's potential role in brokering peace between Israel and Palestine
China’s Income Gap Solution: Too Little, Too Late?
February 15, 2013 / Minxin Pei
FORTUNE
This op-ed was originally published by Fortune Magazine. Click here to read the complete article.
FORTUNE -- Few would disagree that reducing China's disturbingly high level of income inequality is one of the most difficult but critical challenges facing the nation's new leadership, headed by Xi Jinping.
Both official figures and scholarly estimates paint a worrisome picture of unprecedented income and wealth disparity that will likely grow worse in the future. Official data on income inequality released recently (the Chinese government has refused to release such official data for years) shows that the core measure of income inequality -- the Gini coefficient -- peaked in 2008 and has since fallen slightly (to around 0.47 -- the higher the number, the wider the income disparity). But this piece of good news has been met with disbelief, if not ridicule, since independent analysis shows no such trend. A more recent survey conducted by a joint Chinese-American research team based on surveys of several thousand households concludes that China's Gini coefficient is 0.61, considerably higher than the official figure (only South Africa, with a Gini coefficient of 0.63, has a higher level of income inequality than China).
Even if we accept the official data, the news is hardly encouraging. High income inequality usually portends social unrest and long-term poor economic performance. In China's case, what should make the members of the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) stay awake at night is the combination of the high level of inequality, the rate of its increase, and how these trends fly in the face of the party's nominally egalitarian ideology.
Read the full article from FORTUNE here.
Minxin Pei is a non-resident senior fellow at the German Marshall Fund of the United States as well as the Tom and Margot Pritzker Professor of Government and director of the Keck Center for International and Strategic Studies at Claremont McKenna College.
