Beijing, August 22:

China’s rapidly widening income gap has reached dangerous levels, risking social instability by 2010 if the present trend continues, a government report warned.

“China’s growing income gap is likely to trigger social instability after 2010 if the government finds no effective solutions to end the disparity,” the ministry of labo-ur and social security warn-ed in a China Daily. Su Hai-nan, president of the income research institute, found income disparity in China had reached the crucial ‘yellow’ stage — the second most serious in a scale of four defined by the institute.

The situation would deteriorate to the most dangerous ‘red’ stage in 2010 if no effective measures were taken within the next five years. Violent protests and riots ha-ve become common among Chinese frustrated by soaring social inequality, massive corruption and illegal land requisitions, sparking government fears of triggering mass-scale social instability. The institute found the income gap in China had been expanding quickly since 200-3 despite a series of measures to raise the income of the impoverished people.

President Hu Jintao’s government took power in 2003, vowing that eradication of poverty was one of its top priorities.

Investment dips

TAIPEI:

Taiwan approved a total of 747 applications for China-bound investment wor-th $3 billion in the seven months to July, down by 20.36 per cent from a year ago. During the period, the commission approved 330 non-China outbound investment applications wor-th $1.61 billion. — AFP