Income distribution has become one of the people"s main concerns in China where more than 30 years of reform and opening up have also resulted in an ever-expanding wealth gap. But narrowing down the rich-poor disparity will prove to be no easy task. Wei Zhong, a researcher with the Institute of Economics under the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, elaborated on the origins and trends of China"s widening income gap, and discussed solutions to curb the gap, in a recent article. Edited excerpts follow: