Despite a huge pay rise, Chinese president Xi Jinping is still among the lowest paid heads of state in the world, reports our Chinese-language sister paper Want Daily. Xi received a sizable monthly salary bump of 61.6% from 7,020 yuan (US$1,130) to 11,385 yuan (US$1,835) as part of an across-the-board raise for civil servants recently announced by Beijing.
This places Xi's official annual salary at roughly US$22,000 based on current exchange rates, just ahead of Singaporean prime minister Lee Hsien Loong's US$21,800 but still significantly behind US president Barack Obama's US$400,000.
Xi's salary also pales in comparison to that of other major world leaders. According to The Economist, Hong Kong chief executive CY Leung earns about US$545,000 a year, while Taiwanese president Ma Ying-jeou takes home about US$178,000. In Europe, French president Francois Hollande's annual salary is US$300,000, just ahead of German chancellor Angela Merkel's US$280,000. Russian president Vladimir Putin is believed to earn about US$115,000 a year.
Official Chinese government documents indicate that civil servant salaries in the future will be adjusted once every one to two years unless there are major incidents such as a financial crisis. The extent of the adjustment will depend on the country's overall economic development, financial situation and inflation indicators.
References:
Xi Jinping 習近平
CY Leung 梁振英
Ma Ying-jeou 馬英九