就在中国经济快速增长的同时,也有数据表明,近年来该国的贫富差距也在迅速拉大。中国智库北京国际城市发展研究院(International Institute for Urban Development)去年9月发表报告称,估计中国2010年的基尼系数为0.438。美国得克萨斯农工大学(Texas A&M)教授甘犁在2011年8月和2012年6月对中国家庭财富进行了独立调查后,认为中国的基尼系数为0.61,几乎比所有发展中国家都要高。
就在中国经济快速增长的同时,也有数据表明,近年来该国的贫富差距也在迅速拉大。中国智库北京国际城市发展研究院(International Institute for Urban Development)去年9月发表报告称,估计中国2010年的基尼系数为0.438。美国得克萨斯农工大学(Texas A&M)教授甘犁在2011年8月和2012年6月对中国家庭财富进行了独立调查后,认为中国的基尼系数为0.61,几乎比所有发展中国家都要高。
FOR YEARS it has been a commonplace among those who watch China—and among those who lead it—that growing inequality is one of the greatest threats to the nation’s continued growth, development and stability. Nearly three years ago the premier, Wen Jiabao, promised both to make the “pie” of social wealth bigger, and to do a better job of distributing it. His government, he said, would “resolutely reverse the widening income gap”.
收入差距扩大是威胁中国发展进步和稳定的最大威胁,这对于多年来长期观察中国的人来说已经是老生常谈 — 对中国领导人来说亦是如此。大约三年以前,温家宝总理承诺到,既要使社会财富的“蛋糕”变的更大,同时也会在财富分配工作上下更大功夫。他说:“政府决心扭转收入差距不断扩大的局面”。
But for such an important issue, China has done a remarkably poor job of measuring and reporting on it. The Gini coefficient, a 101-year-old statistical tool that can be applied to many different indicators, is among the most widely used measures of income inequality around the world. Yet China went 12 years without formally disclosing its figures.
对于如此重要的一个问题,中国在控制和统计方面做的实在不够好。基尼指数是一个已经101岁的统计学工具,该指数由许多指标构成,被全世界广泛应用于贫富差距统计工作。然而中国已经12年没有正式公布过该指数。
That changed last Friday, January 18th, when the National Statistical Bureau released a slew of data showing that China’s Gini number stood at 0.474 in 2012 (where a coefficient of zero would correspond to a perfectly equal society and a score of 1 would go to the society in which one person took absolutely everything). Though this is above the threshold of 0.4 that is sometimes reckoned to be a sign of potentially destabilising inequality, it is also down from the peak level of 0.491, recorded in 2008. These numbers put China in roughly the same range as America. There are plenty of countries that are more unequal than China, and still more countries that are less so.
1月18日,也就是上周五,情况有所改变。国家统计局发布了一系列数据,指出中国的基尼指数在2012年为0.474(指数中0代表社会完全平等,而1代表社会财富完全被某一类人占有)。虽然数值还是超过了0.4的警戒线(通常认为指数超过0.4代表收入不平等已经威胁到社会稳定),但相较2008年最高值0.491还是有所下降。这一数字表示中国与美国处于相似水平,而比中国更不平等或者更平等的国家都有很多。
But there are also plenty of serious questions about the accuracy of the newly released figures. In a blog post, a prominent Chinese economist, Xu Xiaonian, compared the newly reported Gini numbers to a “fairy tale”. Indeed, in Chinese policy circles, doubts the about methodological difficulties of calculating the Gini coefficient are not new, and have been cited as justification for China’s reluctance to report it.
这一数据的准确性受到严重质疑。中国经济学家许小年在他的博客中将其比为“童话”。确实,在中国的政治圈内对于基尼指数的统计难度一直有疑惑存在,这种疑惑甚至被当做不发布基尼指数报告的借口。
Despite that official reluctance, hints and titbits have dribbled out before. Bo Xilai, the senior leader who was at the centre of last year’s most spectacular political scandal, used his final public appearance last March to reveal that China’s Gini coefficient had exceeded 0.46—and to suggest that increasingly concentrated wealth marked a failure of socialism.
由于过去官方统计的缺席,暗示和花边新闻逐渐出现。薄熙来,去年中国最大政治丑闻的主角,在他去年3月最后一次公开亮相时称中国的基尼指数已经超过0.46 — 并称长期专注于追求财富标志着社会主义制度的失败。
Far more substantial than that last-ditch effort of a besieged politician was the academic study released in December 2012 which put China’s Gini number at an alarming 0.61, making it a contender for the dubious honour of nearly topping of the world’s inequality rankings (though still it would have fallen a good bit behind South Africa, which scores a contemporary world-beating 0.70).
与一名身陷囹圄的政治家做出的最后挣扎相比,2012年12月发布的学术研究报告显得更有营养一些。该报告中写到中国的基尼指数已经达到0.61,中国几乎有实力登顶全世界最不平衡国家这一殊荣(尽管比南非相比还差那么一点点,南非的基尼指数为0.70,暂居世界第一)。
If the official numbers released this week are to be believed, “Grandpa” Wen successfully kept his promise of three years ago and reversed a trend that was going the wrong way. But he took office nearly ten years ago, touting his determination to look out for China’s less-well-off. And the same set of official figures shows that income inequality is almost exactly where it was in 2003, recent reversals notwithstanding. The current premier is due to leave his post in March. Whichever estimate of China’s Gini coefficient is closest to the truth, there can be no doubting that his successor will have plenty more to do when it comes to distributing or redistributing that still-expanding pie.
如果这周公布的官方数字是真实的,可以说“温爷爷”兑现了他3年前许下的诺言,扭转了形势。但他上任已经是10年前的事了,且一直在表决心要照顾不富裕的阶层。同一官方数据表明,尽管最近才有好转,但是收入差距相较于2003年几乎完全没有改观。现任总理温家宝将于3月离任,不管哪个基尼系数更接近真实情况,毋庸置疑的是,继任总理在使“扩大中的蛋糕”继续扩大和财富再分配方面有更多工作要做。