Why Do Chinese People Accept Income Inequality? A Political System Justification Theory

China’s income inequality ranks among the highest in the world. Despite this, Chinese citizens exhibit remarkable tolerance toward the pervasive inequality. This chapter outlines an institutional logic that highlights the role of the Chinese people’s high trust in their government. It argues that politically trusting individuals trust the people who run the government to do what is right and solve the problems the country faces. More specifically, the widespread trust in government encourages a political system justification belief that existing social and institutional arrangements are fair, legitimate, and necessary, which allows individuals to rationalize, rather than question, economic inequality. An analysis of data from two China samples of the Asian Barometer Survey (2015, 2019) provides strong empirical evidence for this logic. Results show that Chinese people largely perceive income differences as fair, and this fairness perception is positively associated with their high political trust even after controlling for well-established factors, including economic modernization, meritocratic beliefs, and political propaganda. The widespread belief that the government is capable of solving the problems the country faces contributes to the connection between political trust and perceived fairness. Future research should explore further the political roots of Chinese people’s high levels of fairness perception and, therefore, their acceptance of unfair income distribution in China.