Since the beginning of reform and opening-up, the income gap in Chinese society has been widening. Jia Kang, the director of the Research Institute for Fiscal Science under the Ministry of Finance, believes that there are seven main reasons for this trend.

- Differences in the degree of effort and amount of hard work. Under the old egalitarian system where "everybody ate from the same big pot", a good worker had no advantage or incentive over a bad. After reform and opening-up, real differences began to appear in the lives of an "industrious person" as against a "lazy person". The new system exposed the differences in workers and allowed for the emergence and gradual widening of the income gap.

- Differences in personal ability and intellect. Some special personal characteristics and abilities have been particularly well rewarded in the last 25 years, such as entrepreneurialism, innovation, and scientific and technological ability. Once in a competitive market, their skills are highly sought after and well paid for.

- Differences in status and personal resources. For many reasons, there are always differences in the personal wealth of individuals, which can affect income levels.

- Different opportunities. Each person is given different opportunities. What opportunities they are offered depends on where they are and at what times and their decisions may produce vastly outcomes. Chance is undeniably a factor, and its effects are quite obvious in some areas of the market economy.

- Inherent system constrains. For example, the income of workers in some monopolized industries is higher than in those that aren't, and the salary of a government worker is determined largely by the location of their position.

- The "potential rule". The "potential rule" governs the current system. Unlawful income is known as "gray income" and usually takes the form of bribery.

- Unlawful practices and corruption. Any income derived from illegal activities is referred to as "black income".

By People's Daily Online