White paper details journey to prosperity

Since 2012, "the wealth gap still exists but continued to narrow between urban and rural areas and among different regions and groups", said Ning, who also is deputy director of the National Development and Reform Commission.

He said China's Gini coefficient, a commonly used estimation of inequality, was 0.468 last year, compared with the peak of 0.491 in 2008.

Rapidly expanding public services have also helped ease the imbalances. China's healthcare plan now covers 1.35 billion people and the pension fund program covers 1 billion. It also built more than 80 million affordable homes, benefiting about 200 million people.