Report on wealth of mainland Chinese creates a credibility gap

Figures on the wealth of mainlanders just released by the National Bureau of Statistics - the first report of its kind in a decade - have been met with incredulity and a large dose of sarcasm in the press and blogosphere.

Few quibbled with the report's rather precise figures, such as city dwellers last year earning an average annual disposable income of 29,547 yuan (HK$37,563). And there was no argument that those earning less than 11,434 yuan were low-income. What was laughable to many was the notion that 56,389 yuan a year could be considered a high income in today's modern cities.

Readers were no doubt pleased that the nation's alarming income gap was showing signs of narrowing thanks to a slight decline last year in China's Gini coefficient, a measure of income inequality.

But, as a China Youth Daily editorial pointed out, someone earning 56,000 yuan a year would be living hand-to- mouth if they were paying off a loan on modest flat in a second-tier city such as Nanjing.

"That amount is roughly what I pay for my mortgage in a year," the author wrote. "How did toiling for the bank without food or drink come to be considered 'high income'?" The general reaction showed that most people's definition of high income was substantially higher than the statisticians', the editorial said.

The New Express wrote that 56,000 yuan could be considered a high income if that was what remained in a bank account at the end of the year after all living expenses had been paid. It added, mockingly: "In fact, people in this country live blissfully as long as we don't factor into the equation the prices of food, fuel and housing."

Guangdong's Yangcheng Evening News called for a sober look at the study because the way it divided the country into five income groups hardly displayed the true income disparity felt by most people.