It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.

It was a time for China to flex its financial muscle everywhere. It was also a time of widespread corruption, economic inequality and public discontent.

But when government procurement officers recently put the BMW and Mercedes-Benz brands on their car purchasing list for top leaders, they ignored the dark side of prosperity.

After all, China has emerged relatively unscathed from the global financial meltdown. Cash-rich Chinese companies are on an international spending spree, snapping up foreign assets for a bargain price.

And when the going gets tough, the rich get richer. But the public is still not ready to reward a minister with a sporty BMW or shining Mercedes.

Instead, people were angry and unforgiving when they realized the two brands had found their way into the official car shopping list for the next couple of years.

Following a 2004 government regulation that specifies prices and engine displacements for cars used by top officials, a minister or provincial governor can be chauffeured around in a BMW 5 series or a Mercedes E class, while a vice minister could get a BMW 3 series or a Mercedes C class.

Amid the public outcry, the Procurement Center of the Central People’s Government has removed the shopping list from its website, with assurances that the government departments “have no current plans” to buy BMW or Mercedes vehicles for official fleets.

But the controversy runs deeper than that. The flare-up of anger has once again revealed a brewing social and political crisis in the country.

First, the social divide has been widening fast in China in recent years, with a greater concentration of wealth and a growing disparity in incomes.

In 1990, the top 20 percent of Chinese households made 4.2 times more than the bottom 20 percent.

In 1998 the gap widened to 9.6 times and in 2007, to 18.7 times, according to China Academy of Social Sciences (CASS) studies.

China is home to 800,000 millionaires who pamper themselves with BMWs, Rolexes, and Louis Vuitton handbags. But it also has tens of millions of people who live in abject poverty.

In the wake of the economic crisis, the government estimates about 20 million unemployed rural migrants have already returned home. By the end of last year, about 8.9 million urban residents had registered as jobless and unemployment is expected to be more serious this year.

Second, there is an increasing public discontent about economic inequality. In 2008, less than 30 percent of Chinese felt the income gap was just, compared with 40 percent in 2006, also according to the CASS studies.

BMW has often been thrust to the forefront in the standoff between the haves and the have-nots, with many unflattering tales circulating on the Internet about its arrogant, selfish, nouveau riche drivers.

The most notorious scandal occurred in 2003, when a tractor filled with green onions scraped the left rear-view mirror of a BMW X5 in Harbin, Heilongjiang Province.

After a spat, the BMW driver, wife of a wealthy local businessman, drove her car into the bystanders, killing the wife of the tractor driver and injuring 12 others. At the local court, the BMW driver was given a two-year suspended sentence. There was a rumor she was related to a high-ranking provincial official.

The onion peddler versus BMW driver case soon became a classic example of a widening social division as well as corruption.

Third, systematic corruption and executive excesses have reinforced people’s resentment about social and economic inequalities, and more people are losing trust. The CASS studies say that Chinese believe if there is a clash between any social groups now, it will most likely happen between the rich and the poor, and the government officials and the masses.

For a government whose legitimacy hinges on high moral standards as well as good job performance, it would be wise to avoid ostentatious association with the wealthy, to avoid the worsening of a them-versus-us mentality.

On a positive note, the procurement officers appear to be fast learners. On their official website, they have posted a Xinhua news report in a prominent position that praises frugal government policies on official cars. For new ministers, a pitch-black Audi or Passat or another more conservative brand may suit them just fine.

(Global Times July 8, 2009)