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New plan to reduce income inequality

The framework will see an enlarged middle-income group and high earners will pay more in tax.

It is time for common prosperity, Yang declared, although one government plan is not going to provide all the answers to the thorny issue of income distribution in a society of 1.3 billion people.

This is not just about individual tastes or lifestyle, economists point out. It reflects a yawning gap between rich and poor that is hindering the world's second-largest economy from making further progress and perhaps eroding its very social fabric, Yang said.

The framework may use the Gini coefficient, an internationally accepted gauge of income inequality, or adopt a mix of indicators, such as urban-rural income disparity or wage differences among various industries.

Targets would almost certainly be more powerful than persuasion, he said.

The country's Gini coefficient has already reached a high, if not dangerous level. It is close to 0.5, he said, a point that "is threatening" social security. Little room is left for the index to grow.

The last time the government reported the Gini coefficient was in 2000, when it stood at 0.412.

The National Bureau of Statistics said 2011's Gini coefficient was "a little higher than 2010,"without specifying either number. In January, the NBS said the main reason that China did not release the figure was because data about high-income groups was still incomplete.