ABSTRACT
Realities in China often do not match official rhetoric. Moreover, an oversimplified view of how to conceptualize and measure inequality has caused much confusion. The idea that during the Maoist era, and during the Cultural Revolution decade in particular, there was a broad-ranging egalitarian push, and that the current leaders in China almost delight in repudiating egalitarianism and singing the praises of inequality, is not simply a mirage. The Marxist framework accepted by the Chinese communist party sensitized Mao and other leaders to certain dimensions of inequality but blinded them to others. The major factor contributing to overall inequality in a developing society, however, is not this sort of local inequality but, rather, income differences between town and countryside and across regions within rural areas. Trends in regional inequality in the distribution of incomes after the 1950s are less clear, but the available evidence suggests that, in the Maoist period, disparities were not reduced and may actually have grown significantly.
