China's Developing Country Status not Changed As It Raised Poverty Threshold 

China's government on Nov. 29 raised the country's poverty threshold to 2,300 yuan (362 U.S. dollars) in terms of the annual net income of farmers, an 80 percent jump from 2010 to a figure that almost matches the common international poverty line, one U.S. dollar a day.

The new standard would nominally increase the number of poor people in China to more than 100 million, a figure that seems to offset the country's anti-poverty efforts in the past decades.

However, as the country aims to build an all-round well-off society, such a move will eventually benefit the low-income population in the world's biggest developing country.

Although China's poverty threshold had been much lower than the international standard, the government has never stopped lifting the threshold from year to year, to account for currency inflation and rising exchange rates.

Poverty is a relative concept that varies in different states and time periods, and only a small number of countries use the international poverty threshold as their own standard.

Given the comparatively lower prices of food and labor that the Chinese rural population faces, the World Bank's standard of 1 or 1.25 U.S. dollars a day is not always a meaningful reference here.

China's first poverty line was determined at 200 yuan (then 68 U.S. dollars) in 1985, based on a calculation of the calorie intake deemed necessary for an individual.

After more than 30 years of development under a policy of opening-up and reform, China has achieved eye-catching economic progress. Even the World Bank acknowledged that about 70 percent of the world population to have risen above the poverty line in the past 25 years were from China.

But with the world's largest amount of manpower, Chinese Gross Domestic Product per capita remains at the level of a developing country, a reminder that poverty relief is still a big task for the government as it looks to address a yawning gap between the income of those at the top and bottom of the earning scale.

By raising the poverty line, China's government has pledged to improve the rural population's livelihood not just in terms of food and shelter but also education and healthcare.

If China meets the plea of President Hu Jintao to "ensure the nation's impoverished will no longer need to worry about food and clothing by 2020," it will not only have reduced its own impoverished numbers, but also contributed to the stability and prosperity of the world economy.

Source: Xinhua