Poverty Reduction Makes Headway

China recently published a white paper titled New Progress in the Development-oriented Poverty Reduction Program for Rural China. It reveals that over the past decade the state raised the national poverty line for rural residents from RMB 865 in 2000 to RMB 1,274 in 2010. Based on this new criterion, the rural population in poverty had decreased from 94.22 million at the end of 2000 to 26.88 million at the end of 2010, and the proportion of those living below the poverty line decreased from 10.2 percent of the total rural population in 2000 to 2.8 percent in 2010. The central and local governments' financial commitments to poverty reduction programs increased from RMB 12.75 billion in 2001 to RMB 34.93 billion in 2010 – an average annual growth of 11.9 percent. This represents a total investment of RMB 204.38 billion over these 10 years. The white paper also cautions that China is still faced with a serious challenge in narrowing the gap between urban and rural areas and different regions, and between the rich and the poor. According to Fan Xiaojian, director of Leading Group Office of Poverty Alleviation and Development of the State Council, the 2010 average per capita income of urban residents is 3.23 times that of their countryside peers.