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China and India: Convergence in Economic Growth and Social Tensions?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 May 2025

Nirmal Kumar Chandra
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Do the economic policies or the “business model” adopted by China and India necessarily aggravate inequalities in income and wealth distribution, and thus exacerbate social contradictions? While not providing a definitive answer, the article examines a wide range of quantitative data on wealth, poverty and inequality in the two counties, noting the rising concentration of income and wealth, the trends in poverty, inequality, employment and unemployment, and the nature and extent of social unrest. It also, however poses methodological issues including the comparability of Chinese, Indian and international data. The author outlines a feasible alternative centred on development with equity.

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Research Article
Information
Asia-Pacific Journal , Volume 7 , Issue 16 , April 2009 , e3
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Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BYCreative Common License - NCCreative Common License - ND
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivatives licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is unaltered and is properly cited. The written permission of Cambridge University Press must be obtained for commercial re-use or in order to create a derivative work.
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Copyright © The Authors 2009

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