The New Challenges and Development Path of China's Economic Gap in the Digital Economy Era

Abstract

Being an influential engine of high-quality economic growth in China, the digital economy is changing the mode of production, the distribution of income and social organization. Nevertheless, the fast emergence of the digital economy has not been beneficial to everyone but has only contributed to widening the gap between the rich and the poor and created a new system of stratification in society. Considering China as a research subject, the paper will initially define the current situation and the regional features of China's digital economy through literature review, and subsequently, examine how the digital divide, unequal factor allocation and unequal regional development increase the gap between the rich and the poor. It is revealed that the increasing gap between the rich and the poor in the period of the digital economy is not brought about by technology per se, but as a result of the interaction between infrastructure conditions, education levels, capital distribution, and policy resource allocation. Thus, human beings ought to work towards the spread of digital infrastructure, construct a national digital skills training framework, and improve the distribution system of digital economic elements, as well as contribute to the balanced development of regions and urban and rural areas.