Stability concerns

In the survey about the public's view on social stability, 88 percent expressed strong confidence that China will be a more socially stable society in 10 years.

In terms of the challenges to social stability, income disparity and corruption were the top two elements the public considered the most challenging to social stability in the next 10 years.

The social security system, ethnic separatism, economic slowdown and housing price were other concerns.

"This result genuinely reflects the current situation as these two elements have greatly triggered discontent in the general public in recent years," said Ding Yifan, a researcher at the State Council Development Research Center.

In addition, following a series of strike over higher wages and more benefits in the first half of the year, the income disparity issue has hence become a hot topic in the media, in the general public and among policy makers.

Zhang Jianguo, an official at the All-China Federation of Trade Unions, said in May that wages accounted for just 36.7 percent of China's GDP in 2005, down sharply from 56.5 percent in 1983, the Xinhua News Agency reported.

According to 2009 World Bank figures, China's Gini Index (an indicator of income inequality) was 0.47 - a level considered "alarming."

However, the pollsters found that only 26 percent of people expressed an optimistic outlook on the improvement of the wealth gap issue, followed by stabilization of prices and corruption.

In contrast, 80 percent of respondents said that social security would become better in the next 10 years.

The report showed nearly half of those surveyed (42 percent) attached more importance to social stability over economic development and 39 percent think that both were equally important.

Wang Xiaodong, a researcher with the China Youth Research Center, told the Global Times that this view reflects a change compared to a similar survey he did seven years ago.

"Many Chinese used to put economic development as the priority but this has gradually changed over the years with more people attaching importance to stability and other social issues," Wang said.