Four in 10 Chinese feel corruption, public discontent most to blame for social uncertainties

NEW DELHI - Most Chinese polled in a recent survey believe widespread corruption and public discontent are to blame for social uncertainties in the country.

The poll, launched by a magazine affiliated with People’s Daily, interviewed 6,575 ordinary Chinese citizens and 50 scholars.

More than 60 percent of the ordinary people said it was “highly probable” that China would be caught in the middle-income trap. However, more than 90 percent of the scholars disagreed.

Corruption and the widening gap between the rich and poor are most likely to influence the nation’s development, the China Daily quoted the respondents, as saying.

Despite the tremendous GDP growth, the people can barely feel an improvement in their lives, many of them said.

More than half of the ordinary people who participated in the poll said “wide-spread corruption and public discontent” were the main reasons the country could get caught in the middle-income trap.

Among them, 44 percent believe the “widening income gap and social classes division” require the most attention.

Ordinary citizens believe public faith in the government is declining due to corruption, vested interest groups will obstruct reforms, and social security and income distribution will always remain a problem.

Scholars, however, were more optimistic about the future.

Hu Angang, director of the center for China studies, a top policy-making think tank under the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Tsinghua University, said: “We should cautiously choose the path for social reforms to guarantee modernized development and reduce social unrest,” he said. (ANI)