China uses strict measures to counter financial inequality as global report sheds light on rising wealth gap

China faces vast financial inequality and is using strict measures to counter it as a recent report has shed light on the rising wealth gap worldwide, said a report.

"One per cent of Chinese own 31 per cent of the country's wealth, according to Credit Suisse Research Institute. The coronavirus pandemic further exposed disparities, as the rich returned to luxury spending while other Chinese continued to struggle," The New York Times had reported.

The world's ten richest men more than doubled their fortunes from USD 700 billion to USD 1.5 trillion --at a rate of USD 15,000 per second or USD 1.3 billion a day-- during the first two years of a pandemic that has seen the incomes of 99 per cent of humanity fall and over 160 million more people forced into poverty, revealed a report by Oxfam last week.

"If these ten men were to lose 99.999 per cent of their wealth tomorrow, they would still be richer than 99 per cent of all the people on this planet," said Oxfam International's Executive Director Gabriela Bucher last week. "They now have six times more wealth than the poorest 3.1 billion people."

China's financial regulators have cracked down on the country's tech giants, extracting pledges of loyalty and hefty donations. Tycoons have been detained on corruption accusations. And online, the authorities have ordered social media platforms to scrub the hugely popular videos that make clear the gap between the haves and have-nots, according to The New York Times.

If China's financial inequality goes unaddressed, the imbalance could pose a threat to the authorities' near-total control, which rests on a promise of economic comfort. Exorbitant urban housing prices and accelerating competition for white-collar jobs have left many young people feeling that the "China Dream" is out of reach. Even Chinese President Xi Jinping has called the rich-poor gap a "major political matter" touching on the party's legitimacy, reported The New York Times.

(ANI)