Inequality acceptance in China
Rising inequality challenges China’s socialist market economy. A study shows Chinese views on fairness resemble Americans’, but support for redistribution matches Germany’s.
Growing inequality poses a fundamental challenge to China’s socialist market economy. A new large-scale comparative study examines how people in China view inequality – and contrasts these views with those in the United States and Germany.
Published in the Journal of Economic Inequality, the study finds that people in China consider hard work and talent much fairer sources of inequality than luck. They also believe these factors are more important drivers of inequality than luck. In this respect, Chinese fairness views and inequality beliefs resemble those of Americans more than those of Germans.
At the same time, support for government redistribution is substantially higher in China than in the United States, and on par with Germany. This apparent contradiction – acceptance of merit-based inequality combined with strong support for redistribution – reflects the challenges China faces: high inequality, an underdeveloped welfare system, and growing public demand for policies that balance market efficiency with social justice.
The findings shed light on how attitudes toward inequality shape policy preferences and provide new insights into the social foundations of China’s economic model.