In recent years, as the economy steams ahead, the Chinese have enjoyed ever greater and more rapid accumulation of wealth. Meanwhile, how national wealth is shared among its citizens has frequently been cast into the spotlight.

Controversy arose when critics claimed the income and wealth gap of the country was expanding to a dangerous level. The Gini coefficient, a measure of income or wealth inequality, has exceeded the internationally accepted warning line of 0.4, according to various studies.

The Gini value itself, however, is not one without controversy. Some domestic researchers have argued that it does not apply to China's reality and that the calculation of the value is flawed.

Tuesday's release of a report on the world distribution of household wealth, compiled by the World Institute for Development Economics Research of the United Nations University, provides new support for those researchers.

Anthony Shorrocks, director of the Helsinki-based institute, said the first global research on the topic found that China fails to be outstanding in the world's super-rich list because "its wealth is evenly spread by international standards."

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