AS THE gap between rich and poor in China continues to widen, city authorities in Beijing are taking aim at outdoor advertisers seeking to promote “hedonism, lavishness and the blind worship of foreign things” in a crackdown on luxury lifestyles.
Advertisers have to self-assess their promotional campaigns, and any that are deemed in “poor taste”, “vulgar” or advocate “feudal or imperial lifestyles” will be banned from the city’s advertising hoardings from April 15th, the city’s administration of industry and commerce said in a statement on its website.
The government believes these ads create an ideologically incorrect atmosphere.
Similar measures have been imposed in the city of Chongqing in the southwest, where incomes are growing strongly, encouraging a property market boom.
The ever-widening wealth gap was one of the reasons given by Chinese activists in recent weeks when urging citizens to stage protests similar to pro-democracy movements in Tunisia and Egypt, which led to an increased police presence in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and other cities last month.
The level of wealth in China is growing apace as the nation sees the fastest expansion of any major economy, with gross domestic product increasing on average by about 10 per cent annually in the past two decades.
According to data from the Shanghai-based research group Hurun, China had 875,000 multimillionaires and 55,000 billionaires in yuan terms last year – 6.1 per cent more millionaires and 7.8 per cent more billionaires than in 2009.
More than 50 per cent of the mainland’s wealthiest, who each have assets of more than €1.15 million, spend between €115,000 and €230,000 every year, and own more than three cars.
Rural incomes are also increasing, rising 10.9 per cent in 2010, but China is still home to 150 million people who live on less than €0.70 a day. Consumer prices have exceeded the government’s target for 2011 in each of the past four months.
The five-year plan recently passed by the National People’s Congress allows for spending €140 billion this year to build 10 million low-cost homes, part of government efforts to narrow the wealth gap and ensure political stability.
Earlier this month, China’s minister of commerce, Chen Deming, said the country, currently the world’s second largest consumer of luxury goods following Japan, would become the world’s largest in a few years because of its swiftly expanding consumer base.