A recent report on social mobility in contemporary China has grabbed a lot of public attention.

The report, released by a research team with the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, says social groups occupying higher positions on the social ladder have had a better chance of passing their title and positions to their children since the 1980s.

At the same time, children from less advantaged classes are facing tougher and tougher challenges to make their way into these positions.

These emerging trends in social mobility in China need to be taken seriously.

Social mobility, people's ability to move from one social stratum to another -- which is mainly reflected in their economic status -- is an index that gauges a country's social justice and openness.

In developed countries it is relatively easy to become more affluent, and move up a class or two.

In China this ability to move has radically changed over the last half century.

Before the country embarked on its reform and opening up policy more than two decades ago, China's social mobility was political. Anything political -- such as political leanings, political identity -- at that time could have a deciding say on people's social status.

When the reform and opening-up policies were launched, China shifted its focus to economic development.

The policy shift has had a massive impact on social mobility evolution, determining people's social status by their economic one.

The move has meant that a person's occupation has replaced their political status in determining which stratum they belong to. Merit also has an increasingly important role in how a person's social status is fixed.

The report claims that China's social mobility has increased and become easier since the early 1980s. It concludes that the changing pattern is down to Chinese society's greater openness.

But a well-functioning, open and fair social mobility mechanism is still far from being in place in China. And some disturbing trends are also emerging.

Despite the fact that social mobility is edging closer to a economically-oriented model, it is still heavily swayed by shifting policies and on-going system reform, a phenomenon common to transitional society.

One new policy or policy adjustment can sometimes change a social group's status overnight. More worryingly, it is becoming more common for people of the same social class to pass down their titles and positions to the next generation in the same social class.

Economic, political and cultural resources, the report says, are converging on the upper social classes, effectively diminishing the chances of members from lower down to move up the social ladder.

Such trends, if unchecked, could lead to a polarized society.

The ideal social mobility pattern is one in which more and more farmers and workers switch to other higher social groups, increasing the middle class.

Only after such a pattern is properly in place can China become a truly just and open society.

But if such a scenario is to materialize, the current reforms need to be deepened and social policies amended.

While aggressively pushing ahead urbanization to turn more farmers into urban dwellers, measures should also be taken to improve the rural economy.

Without rural prosperity, urbanization will not be smooth as poor farmers flood the cities in search of a better living, creating urban poverty problems and making it more difficult for farmers to move up the social scale.

A more balanced education resources allocation mechanism is also badly needed, in that education and skills acquired from schooling are the most important driving forces of social mobility.

But education resources are not equally allocated at the moment, often resulting in rural areas being neglected.

The current wrongs and inequalities must be addressed to give anyone in society equal access to education, the key vehicle for change.

The government should list job-creation as their priority in mapping out the economic development strategy.

Employment will be a herculean social and economic challenge for China in the long term.

Vast numbers of farmers and workers will be unemployed if adequate jobs are not provided, depriving them of any means to climb the social ladder.

The political system reforms must be pushed to help put in place an open, transparent and fair personal mechanism and one that curbs nepotism.

The improvement of the current tax regime and public fiscal system could also contribute to narrowing the widening income gap and preventing the polarization of the rich and poor.

The introduction of property tax and a reform of income tax should be carried out as soon as possible.

(China Daily September 6, 2004)