Poverty Relief for a New Era

The Development-orientated Poverty Alleviation Program in Rural China (2001-2010) outlines the battle ahead in eradicating poverty from the Chinese countryside.

Fan Xiaojian, vice chief and office director of the Leading Group for Poverty Alleviation and Development of the State Council, remarked that in the coming decade, essentially eliminating extreme poverty would be China’s top priority. He said investing more capital in, and adopting improved anti-poverty measures towards, areas of endemic poverty constituted the government’s main policy tools in the fight.

Huade County in Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region has traditionally suffered from endemic poverty. In 2011 Huade was designated as a county in the “contiguous poor area” of the Yanshan-Taihang Mountains. In Huade, 30,000 residents, or 27 percent of the county’s total population, lived below the poverty line. Additionally, many young people had left for richer areas of the country to seek out employment opportunities. As a result, only 40 percent of the registered population lives in the county, 26 percent of whom are over the age of 60.

An investigation conducted by the national cadre training center for poorer areas revealed that around 40 percent of villages in Huade County suffered from inadequate living conditions, while the relatively small working-age population exacerbated already endemic poverty.

One subsequent initiative by the county government has been to develop larger central villages to combine the resources of surrounding “empty villages.” Large investments have been made to improve agricultural infrastructure and public facilities. Villagers from outlying regions have been encouraged to relocate to the central villages, and the subsequent pooling of the labor force has resulted in economies of scale.

To date, more than 2,000 rural residents from 64 outlying villages with 30 households or fewer have been merged into 30 central villages.

Rural residents of working age are encouraged to seek employment in the county town. Industry in the county seat has been invigorated, providing over 30,000 jobs. Five pillar industries dominate: clothing, heavy chemicals, wind power, mineral products development, and processing of agricultural and livestock products.

The county government has invested RMB 12.5 million in various vocational training programs, such as group training, company-sponsored, occupation-specific training, and relocation orientation programs. Over 16,500 people have attended these programs free of charge. Over 95 percent of relocated farmers and herders have subsequently found employment locally.

Of the villagers in Huade County, 16,000 are over 60 years of age or disabled due to illness or injury, accounting for 26.4 percent of permanent rural residents. Many suffered poor social lives or were lonely, their children having moved to faraway cities. In order to improve their quality of life, the local government has invested in mutual assistance compounds in central villages. Residents of the compounds live in close-knit communities, in which the more abled help out the less abled, and all enjoy a wide range of social activities.

In 2012, RMB 55 million was invested in opening 22 such community compounds, and 3,600 elderly from 1,584 households have moved into these homes.

The situation of the elderly in Huade is somewhat typical of a broader national trend. As the young seek work in the cities, rural parents increasingly live in “empty nests.” It is estimated 260 million farmers now work in cities, leaving their parents in the countryside. Mutual assistance compounds go some way to relieving the social fallout from a depopulating countryside.

Many other goals are hoped to be achieved before 2020, all of which aim to narrow the gap between living standards in the countryside and the city. These include protecting farmland from developers, improving rural education, continuing to set up key pillar industries, improving healthcare and social security, developing forestry and paying more attention to ecological concerns. By 2020, China can look forward to bidding farewell to poverty once and for all.