Zheng Xinli (china.com.cn): Income distribution reform means increasing middle and low incomes as soon as possible through adjustment of the distribution structure, so that the whole country can benefit from development based on an "olive-shaped" income structure.

Li Shi (china.com.cn): China badly needs effective taxation to adjust high-incomes, which is different from what is being done in many other countries. Individual income tax as a means to adjust the income gap between low and high earning groups has failed to achieve this goal. Although high-income earners have to pay higher taxes than low-income counterparts, this part only accounts for a small proportion of their overall income.

Liu Zuo (china.com.cn): Reform on individual income tax is now a priority. The most important thing is to change the current taxation mode. We need a pattern that centers on comprehensive taxation levying, supplemented by itemized deductions. When comprehensive taxation begins to play a major role, a lot of problems concerning deductions will be easily solved. Meanwhile, individual income tax rates should be properly cut. The highest income tax rate is currently 45 percent, while that on remuneration for personal services stands at 40 percent. Such figures need to be lowered further.

Cai Shenkun (china.com.cn): When visiting Sweden in 2012, then Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao stressed that fair income distribution is the basis of social stability. "We are aiming to build up a society which not only features economic development, but also social justice and fairness. We must pay special attention to low-income and disadvantageous groups, by means of raising the minimum wage level and alike. High-level managerial incomes depending on monopoly must be restricted, which can be achieved through taxation adjustment. This is also a big task that we force," he said.

Since 2004, China's National Development and Reform Commission began to take the lead in working out a new scheme on the reform of the current income distribution system. However, nearly 10 years have passed, and there is still no result despite heated debates and news that the new scheme will soon be revealed. Reasons for failure in producing an effective reform scheme remains unknown, but in the following years, we have witnessed a widening gap between the rich and poor.

When the majority of the population is viewed as a burden rather than cherished, social stability will surely decline. A vicious circle of reform, growth and stability starts with deteriorating social stability over demands for GDP growth to ease economic tension, while rapid economic growth requires reforms benefiting vested interest groups. This kind of reform can only lead to an even more serious wealth gap.

The expanding income gap between the rich and poor is a very sensitive topic in Chinese society. On December 9, 2012, the Survey and Research Center for China Household Finance, jointly set up by the Southwestern University of Finance and Economics and the Institute of Financial Research of the People's Bank of China, issued a survey report, showing that China's Gini Coefficient in 2010 reached 0.61, much higher than the world average of 0.44. The country thus falls into the category of extreme inequality as defined by the UN.

In this context, dissatisfaction targets the income gap between governmental institution workers and state-owned monopoly enterprise counterparts, rural and urban residents, private company employees and foreign-invested equivalents and even between the unemployed and underemployed. If reform only touches on one sector, it is useless.

Will the Third Plenary Session be followed with the income distribution reform? We'll have to wait and see. The fact is, without thorough reform on the overall system, fair income distribution is unrealistic. In other words, without systemic reform, instead of helping to correct the situation, income distribution adjustment will only threaten social equality.

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