China: Living standards rise sharply
09/29/98
China Daily
Copyright(C) 1998 CHINA DAILY
THIS is the fifth of our 22-article-series based on reports from State Statistics Bureau on China's achievements in reform and opening up in the past 20 years.
A CHINESE family owning a black-and-white TV set in the 1970s was a prime target for envious glances from its neighbours.
But 20 years later, colour TV sets and VCD machines are no longer a luxury.
By the end of 1997, there was one TV set for every household in China, according to figures from the State Statistics Bureau (SSB).
This is only one of the remarkable improvements in people's living standards resulting from China's innovative reform of income distribution systems.
Through a series of measures to readjust the share of investment and spending in the country's gross domestic product (GDP), the central government has brought about a marked increase in people's income, thus enabling them to spend more on raising their living standards.
The average income of Chinese people in 1997 is 14 times that of 1979.
In real terms, growth amounts to 212 per cent, according to the SSB.
Salaries, an important part of people's income, have jumped from 56.9 billion yuan (US$6.85 billion) in 1978 to 941 billion yuan (US$113.4 billion) in 1997, an annual increase of 15.9 per cent.
On the whole, real growth in individuals' salaries has been kept to a rational level. The percentage of salaries in GDP has remained at 16 per cent over the past 20 years.
This has helped the national economy maintain its development momentum, and ensure sustainable, co-ordinated and steady progress, experts say.
China has encouraged the growth of individuals' income, since it enhances their purchasing power and promotes demand for goods.
Between 1979 and 1984, a massive reform of the household responsibility system, aimed at promoting farmers' enthusiasm for production, swept across the country's rural areas. At that time, the income of rural dwellers grew more rapidly than that of urban residents.
During this period, the improvements in people's lives consisted mainly of greater spending on food and clothing.
From 1985 to 1997 on the other hand, conditions were more favourable for urban residents, with new channels of income opening up and a boom in the private sector economy.
Two of the reforms in the income distribution system are of particular significance.
One occurred in 1985, when the salaries of enterprise employees were linked directly to the profits obtained by their enterprises. The other took place in 1993. It reformed the salary system for public servants, and altered the composition of the salary of employees in State-owned enterprises and public sector work units.
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