The wealth gap between China's cities and largely impoverished countryside could be wider this year than at any time since the late 1970s and may grow further, a top party official said in remarks published. Urban Chinese are likely to earn 3.3 times more on average than rural Chinese this year, and 4 times more by 2020 unless steps are taken, the 21st Century Business Herald quoted Zheng Xinli as saying. It said Zheng, the deputy head of the Communist Party's Central Policy Research Office, was speaking at a recent forum. The projection is the latest in a series of warnings over the dramatic divide between China's haves and have-nots, a preoccupation of Communist leaders struggling to tread a path of balanced economic reforms and social stability.