Whilst China has surpassed the U.S. as the leading home for the world’s richest top ten percent, state media has warned against being boastful about the milestone and underlined a more worthy accolade: closing the wealth gap.
100 million Chinese individuals are now amongst the world’s richest, according to a recent Credit Suisse report, surpassing the former top-ranked U.S.’s 90 million, but Chinese state media cautioned against using this isolated data point as an indicator of surpassing the American economy altogether.
«Instead of being taken as [ironclad] evidence for China overtaking the U.S., China should not be confused by such data,» said a «Global Times» report.
«China needs to remain conscious about where it stands despite those shining records. China's GDP per capita is still below $10,000. With a gigantic 1.4 billion population, the country has a heavy responsibility to lead its people to wealth and prosperity.»
«Succesful Overtaking»
According to the report, it is, in fact, the superior wealth of China’s commoners and its poorest that will determine a legitimate claim to «successfully overtaking».
«If the bottom 20 percent on the wealth spectrum in China and its middle class with a growing population can gain more wealth than Americans, then it is time for China to claim a successful overtaking,» it said.
«Also, China and the U.S. are just two countries but they have the largest share of rich people in the world. They should heed the rising inequality while taking head counts of rich guys.»
