Are Chinese citizens increasingly angry about current inequalities? Is popular anger propelling China toward political instability? Are "losers" in the reform-era, and particularly farmers, especially angry? The results of a 2004 China national survey suggest otherwise. Chinese view most features of current inequalities as more fair than unfair. They have more positive views than citizens of other societies about current inequalities and more optimism about ordinary people getting ahead. China's farmers are in many respects quite accepting of current inequalities, while urbanites and the well educated are more critical. The sources and implications of these counter-intuitive findings will be explored.

Martin K. Whyte received his BA from Cornell University and MA and PhD degrees from Harvard. He taught at the University of Michigan from 1970 to 1994, at George Washington University from 1994 to 2000, and returned to Harvard as a faculty member in 2000. He specializes in the study of grass roots social organization and social change in the PRC and has two books forthcoming reflecting his recent work on inequality in China: One Country, Two Societies: Rural-Urban Inequality in China (editor, Harvard University Press) and Myth of the Social Volcano: Perceptions of Inequality and Distributive Injustice in Contemporary China (Stanford University Press).