China has pledged to increase minimum wages and force state-owned companies to hand over more of their revenues to the public as part of a push to tackle inequality.

The chasm between China’s rich and poor is seen by analysts as threatening the country’s political stability, with discontent over inequality spilling over into angry online comment and, on occasion, street protests.

Unveiling a 35-point plan yesterday, the State Council, or cabinet, said it wanted to lift as many as 80m people from poverty by 2015. It pledged to increase minimum wages to 40 per cent of average salaries, boost spending on education and public housing, and force state-owned companies to pay out an additional 5 percentage points of their revenues in dividends by 2015.