Is China rich or poor? Nation’s wealth debate muddied by conflicting government data

Name: Coronavirus: What’s going to happen to China’s economy?
Uploaded: 2020-05-29T10:00:07.000Z
Duration: 5 min 59 s
Description: Coronavirus: What’s going to happen to China’s economy?

Premier Li Keqiang said this week that China has 600 million people with a monthly income of 1,000 yuan (US$140), stoking ongoing debate about China’s wealth

Alternative government data sets have painted a different picture, with one saying urban households have on average on 3.2 million yuan in assets

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China has one of the world’s widest wealth gaps and a severe divide between rural and urban areas. Photo: AFP

Zhou Xin

Published: 6:00pm, 29 May 2020Updated: 8:34pm, 29 May 2020

A long-standing debate over whether China is a rich or poor nation has been reignited in recent weeks after the government released a series of diverging data sets on wealth in the world’s second biggest economy.

Premier Li Keqiang added fuel to the discussion on Thursday, saying that China has 600 million people living on a monthly income of 1,000 yuan (US$140).

“It’s barely enough to cover monthly rent in a mid-sized Chinese city,” Li told a press conference in Beijing.

Li’s comments add weight to the argument that China is a relatively poor country, as over 40 per cent of its 1.4 billion people are still living on a daily income of less than US$5.

05:59

Coronavirus: What’s going to happen to China’s economy?

But his script contrasts with other, recently released data about Chinese wealth, which paints the country as far better off.

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