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BEIJING : The income gap between rural and urban areas is widening in China, state media reported Friday, despite years of efforts from the top echelons of government to bridge the divide.
Last year, the average Chinese city dweller earned 3.28 times as much as his fellow citizen in the countryside, up from 3.21 times in 2004, the China Daily said, citing the agriculture ministry.
"We still have a long way to go in order to make substantial progress in narrowing the gap between rural and urban areas," the paper commented in an editorial.
The news that China's farmers are having a hard time catching up with people in the cities comes nearly five years into an administration that had made it a pillar of its political programme to make life in the countryside easier.
As late as in his annual "state of the union" address in March, Premier Wen Jiabao identified income distribution as a priority area, saying his government would raise rural incomes "through a variety of channels."
"Agriculture, the base of the economy, remains weak, and it is now more difficult than ever to steadily increase grain production and keep rural incomes growing," Wen said then.
President Hu Jintao has also identified the widening wealth gap as a key problem in his long-term objective of building a "harmonious society."
Farmers are actually getting prosperous at a rate not seen since the mid-1980s, with average rural incomes increasing by six percent annually for three consecutive years.
However, people in the cities are getting richer at an even faster pace, fuelling fears that anger over economic injustice could erupt into open expressions of discontent.
"It is a battle we cannot afford to lose," the China Daily warned. "How this task is fulfilled is believed to bear an impact on the overall strength of the country."
- AFP/ms
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