[Lt_Apple]

Chinese increasingly unhappy with life

Chinese people are increasingly dissatisfied with their lives, despite having never been richer, according to a new survey.



The poll of 4,100 people across seven major cities and seven smaller town found levels of dissatisfaction at an almost five-year high Photo: REUTERS

By Peter Foster, Beijing 4:16PM GMT 16 Dec 2010

Sky-rocketing food prices, rural land grabs, a growing rich-poor divide and the outlandish corruption of government officials were the chief complaints, according the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

Although China's economy grew at 10 per cent this year, pushing average earnings above £2,500 per head for the first time, the poll of 4,100 people across seven major cities and seven smaller town found levels of dissatisfaction at an almost five-year high.

The top concern among ordinary Chinese was rising food prices, which have leapt by 15-20 per cent this year, forcing the government to introduce food subsidies amid a growing amount of grumbling in the nation's market-places.

Although China's government has continued to deliver rising living standards, the poll showed that confidence in the government's ability to manage the social upheaval caused by China's economic development was falling.

For the rural poor land disputes - when farmers are shoved off their village land by local governments in return for unfairly low compensation – remain the biggest source of complaints and social unrest in modern China.