By Hong Soon-do, Beijing correspondent, AsiaToday - Despite its recent slowdown, the Chinese economy is still having a bright future as some statistics indicate that China's net asset surpassed those of US last year and some economic forecasts claim that China's GDP per capita will likely exceed $10,000 in 2020.

But if you look closer, you will find there is a serious problem that the Chinese economy has. The large income gap between urban and rural residents is a very serious problem in China's economic development. According to a report by the semi-official China News Service (CNS) on July 27, the per capita income of urban residents was 2.83 times of that of rural residents.

The gap between China's urban and rural areas has become a serious social problem. Without resolving this problem first, China's ambitious goal to become an economic superpower will be meaningless. The picture of a rural residents near Nanjing City in Jiangsu shows how serious the situation is in China./ Source from Xinhua

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There are also significant quality-of-life differences between urban and rural residents. Nearly two-third of China's rural population, more than 500 million people, drink contaminated water. Some of China's rural communities have become 'cancer villages' due to environmental contamination.

In addition, there are significantly unequal education opportunities and health benefits in rural and urban China. Urban youth is more than three times more likely to be admitted to university than rural youth.

Given the situation, it is natural that China's Gini coefficient, a common measure of income inequality, is close to 0.5, which means the inequality problem is extremely severe. The problem is that this gap will continue for a considerable period of time. Li Changping, a rural expert from Hebei University, said, "China's urban-rural gap didn't just happen overnight. It became a serious problem after a considerable period of time. So it will take a lot of time to resolve. Perhaps, it could catch up with the Chinese economy as the perplexities increases."

Of course, the Chinese government is well aware of the situation. It is devoting all its strength in an attempt to resolve the problem. China's establishment of "Three Rural Issues" referring to agriculture, rural areas and farmers related issues, as one of national issues can be seen as a part of its efforts. It seems obvious that China must resolve this problem in order to achieve its ambitious goal of becoming an economic superpower.