China’s rich are rapidly amassing wealth, while the driver of a large truck commits suicide because the Beidou navigation, which monitors the distance and speed of the car, is not working and is fined two thousand dollars.
Some observers have pointed out that nearly one billion people in China earn less than 2,000 yuan a month, and only the Chinese people know best what that means in the current Chinese urban living environment. The tragic death of a bus driver, Jin Deqiang, who drank pesticide and committed suicide after being fined 2,000 yuan, has become a hot topic of public opinion in China.
The devastation caused by the new coronavirus epidemic around the world has not stopped China’s wealthy from amassing their fortunes, Voice of America reported today. China snagged several highlights in Forbes magazine’s latest 2021 wealth rankings: Beijing became the world’s richest city in terms of the number of wealthy people, Beijing became the city with the largest increase in wealthy people, and China became the country with the largest increase in wealthy people. However, this also makes the already very serious problem of polarization between rich and poor even more prominent.
The latest Forbes list of the top 10 richest cities in the world is Beijing, New York, Hong Kong, Moscow, Shenzhen, Shanghai, London, Mumbai, San Francisco, and Hangzhou. Five of these cities are Chinese, with Beijing topping the list, pushing New York, which has been in this position for seven years, to the back of the pack.
The only two American cities among this ranking are New York and San Francisco, and the United Kingdom, Russia and India all occupy only one position.
Beijing added 33 new billionaires last year, increasing its total to 100, surpassing New York’s 99. A total of 2,755 billionaires were selected for the Forbes Wealth Rankings, 660 more than the previous year. Chinese billionaires accounted for 40 percent of the total number of people selected. According to Forbes magazine, the increase in the number of Chinese billionaires is due to three factors: China’s early containment of the new coronavirus outbreak, the growth of technology companies and the rebound of Western stock markets. Another factor in the big increase in the number of Chinese billionaires is that Forbes magazine included Hong Kong and Macau in the Chinese list, which instantly increased the number of Chinese billionaires by 210.
The report said that the rapid concentration of wealth in China among the rich has been accompanied by a widening gap between the rich and the poor. In February, Xi Jinping announced that China’s “war on poverty” had been a complete victory, with 98.99 million rural poor people lifted out of poverty, creating a “miracle on earth”. However, all this has not changed the basic situation that the majority of China’s population is still living a very difficult life. Last May, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang revealed at a meeting of the National People’s Congress that 600 million people in China have a monthly income of only 1,000 yuan, and more than 900 million people have a monthly income of no more than 2,000 yuan. The so-called middle class, which earns between 2,000 and 5,000 yuan a month nationwide, is only 360 million people, accounting for less than 40 percent of the total population of 1.4 billion.
Observers point out that nearly 1 billion people earn less than 2,000 yuan a month, which means something in the current Chinese urban living environment, I’m afraid only the Chinese people know best. Recently, the tragic death of Jin Deqiang, a bus driver who drank pesticide and committed suicide after being fined 2,000 yuan, became a hot topic of public opinion in China.
The report said that, according to the wife of Jin Deqiang, a truck driver who tragically committed suicide, said online that Jin was a truck driver who had been in the transportation industry for 10 years and was the one supporting a family of six (his mother, wife and three children). Many netizens believe that Jin Deqiang chose to commit suicide for a fine of 2,000 yuan, not worth it. But his wife said, he earned about 200-400 yuan a day, this time just out of the car was fined 2000, how can he accept it?
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