ABSTRACT
The chapter provides an empirical overview of structural sources of social inequality in the 20th and start of the 21st centuries in China. Building on the policy experience since the mid-1990s, it suggests ways to improve the quality of data on social inequality, and the relationship between redistributive and growth policies—in particular, fiscal politics and land requisition procedures in urban and rural areas. Over the three decades of reform, social inequality has centred on the urban-rural divide and regional variations. The urban—rural divide remains large and has generally widened over the reform era, but the scale of the inequality is somewhat contentious due to limitations of the indicators used. Intra-sectoral inequality has gained a new dimension from structural changes, but the net direction of change is debatable. Over-leveraging land as a key instrument of the local developmental state also causes social inequality. Despite some uncertainties in the trends and causes of social inequality, several policy priorities remain incontrovertible.
