The Chinese government has made ‘building up a harmonious society’ a crucial task for the country’s future progress. In Chinese, the word ‘harmony’ is composed of two characters - ‘he’ and ‘xie’. 'He' is made up of two parts, which respectively represent grain and mouth (life and living conditions are on good terms), while 'xie' can be seperated into two parts representing speech and all the people (symbolizing a concord society where everyone has the right to speak out his/her opinions). In the process towards a harmonious society, China should firstly ensure everyone in the country will benefit from the economic development and enjoy a better-off life. Narrowing the income gap is undoubtedly one of the key issues the country should tackle.
A widening income gap exists now not only between the rural and urban areas, coastal and inland, but also within the urban centers. Warnings from economists and officials suggest that China’s income gap has entered a ‘yellow alert’ status and could reach a ‘red alert’ in just five years if left unchecked. Actually, the widening income gap is a common phenomenon among fast developing countries, and China’s situation is not much worse than in developed countries like the United States. The typical concern for China is that a certain part of its population is still under the international poverty line. Without government intervention, life for those in poverty could get worse and even trigger social instability.
China has decided to give priority to building a new socialist countryside and the promotion of coordinated urban and rural development. The Chinese government has mapped out comprehensive measures, including hundreds of billions of yuan in investment in less developed rural areas, scrapping the agricultural taxes and offering free compulsory education, low cost medical services and low price housing to poor households. However, these measures will not be able to change the situation overnight, and narrowing the income gap is deemed to be a long-term mission for the country.
Besides the efforts in ensuring that more economic benefits trickle down to the common people, building up a harmonious society requires China also to strengthen its democratic and legal framework, to ensure everyone has the rights to speak out his opinions. Says Chinese President Hu Jintao: “By developing democracy, the people's opinions may be further let out, their intelligence be fully absorbed, and a democratic policy-making mechanism will help balance different social interests and avoid social conflicts.”