Several recent studies focusing on income equality in the Chinese countryside have confirmed staggering discrepancies compared with urban wages.

At a recent U.S. congressional hearing on China’s human rights record, a representative of Falun Gong—a spiritual practice currently persecuted by the Chinese regime—showed a petition signed by 700 Chinese villagers demanding the release of an arrested practitioner.

Nearly ten thousand Guangdong business suffered losses in the first three months of 2012.