Abstract
Before the reform and opening-up, farmers in China were generally poor and worked hard for survival. Only those in extreme poverty had access to poverty relief. Reform and opening-up initiated the road of poverty reduction in rural China, which can be divided into two major stages. From 1978 to 2012, China mainly implemented rural development-oriented poverty alleviation, continuously raised poverty standards, increased investment, and innovated poverty alleviation methods. Under the joint action of high-speed economic growth, large-scale rural labor transfer, international cooperation, and other factors, a sustained and large-scale poverty reduction was achieved. From 2013 to 2020, in order to utterly eliminate absolute poverty, China creatively implemented targeted poverty alleviation, launched the final battle against poverty, increased investment on a large scale, and sent personnel to the countryside for poverty alleviation, and as a result lifted all poor counties, poor villages, and nearly 100 million poor people out of poverty on schedule. Poverty reduction achievements in rural China include such 5 aspects as elimination of absolute poverty, accelerated increase of the poor’s income and consumption level, constant improvement of their life quality and basic public service, resolution of overall regional poverty, and enhancement of social governance capability in poverty-stricken areas. During the past 42 years of reform and opening-up, China has lifted more than 700 million farmers out of poverty, achieved the largest poverty reduction in the world, solved the “last mile” problem of poverty reduction, successively achieved the poverty reduction goal in the UN Millennium development goals and the 2030 sustainable development agenda ahead of schedule, created a miracle of global poverty reduction, and made China’s contribution to global poverty reduction and improvement of human development index by providing Chinese approach and efforts. The report summarizes China’s experience in getting rid of poverty from six aspects, which can be reduced as being based on the national conditions, adhering to the people-centered development thought, constantly improving the shared development strategy, always putting rural poverty reduction in an important position, and choosing a comprehensive poverty reduction road. Many elements of China’s poverty reduction experience can be generally used for reference by other developing countries, especially the methods of solving the “last mile” problem of poverty reduction. The report ends with a brief prospect of the strategic transformation of solving relative poverty and moving toward common prosperity and strengthening international cooperation in poverty reduction in the next stage.
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Notes
- 1.
Lin et al., 1999.
- 2.
To date, China has adopted three poverty lines for the rural areas. The first poverty line was set at 200 yuan, farmers’ per capita annual net income as calculated at the 1984 constant price, which was equivalent to food intake of 2,100 kcal per day/person, with expenses for food accounting for about 85% of their income. This was a subsistence-based poverty line, and was in use from 1986 to 2007. China’s second poverty line was in use from 2008 to 2010, which was 865 yuan as computed according to the 2000 constant price and 1,196 yuan as computed according to the 2008 constant price. The second poverty line could be considered a standard for basically adequate food and clothing, which could guarantee a daily intake of 2,100 kcal of food, and under which the proportion of expenses on food dropped to about 60%. China began to apply the third poverty line in 2011, and this is the standard that still applies now. According to the 2010 constant price, the poverty line was set at 2,300 yuan/year, which could, in addition to meeting the needs for daily intakes of calories and guaranteeing the consumption of 60 g of protein, and under this standard, the proportion of food expenses was further lowered.
- 3.
Zemin (1989).
- 4.
That is, to assure the basic needs of food and clothing for those living in poverty and guarantee that they have access to compulsory education, basic medical services and safe housing (known as “two assurances and three guarantees”), and complete eradication of poverty in all poor regions.
- 5.
Fang (2018).
- 6.
The Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee held a meeting for the summary and evaluation report of poverty alleviation, CPC News Net, Dec. 4, 2019, http://cpc.people.com.cn/n1/2020/1204/c64094-31954642.html, retrieval time: Jan. 30, 2021.
- 7.
Jinping (2020).
- 8.
Based on statistics from the Ministry of Finance.
- 9.
The “three regions” refer to Xizang, four prefectures of southern Xinjiang—Hotan, Aksu, Kashi, and the Kirgiz autonomous prefecture of Kizilsu, and the areas of Sichuan, Yunnan, Gansu, and Qinghai provinces with large Tibetan populations; the “three prefectures” are Liangshan in Sichuan, Nujiang in Yunnan, and Linxia in Gansu.
- 10.
Xuejing (2019).
- 11.
Waging the Final Battle Against Extreme Poverty—on the Poverty Alleviation Drive for the “Three Regions and Three Prefectures”, the central government website, June 2, 2020. http://www.gov.cn/xinwen/2020-06/02/content_5516780.htm, retrieval time: Jan. 30, 2021.
- 12.
For example, on November 13, 2020, the Yunnan provincial people’s government announced that all poor counties in the province had been lifted out of poverty; and on November 16, the Sichuan provincial people’s government announced that the remaining seven counties of extreme poverty in the Liangshan Yi autonomous prefecture had been lifted out of poverty.
- 13.
The Department of Household Surveys of the National Bureau of Statistics (2019).
- 14.
Jinping (2020).
- 15.
The Department of Household Surveys of the National Bureau of Statistics (2020).
- 16.
The terms such as a maximum of five years or a maximum of eight years were used because there were no latest data about China’s poverty headcount ratio under the US$1.9-per-day standard after 2017. China had achieved the goal of complete eradication of poverty under the current poverty line by the end of 2020, and this meant that the deadline for elimination of poverty by the World Bank standard, which was lower than China’s current standard, would have been met ahead of the schedule or at least no later than 2020.
- 17.
Note: it refers to the number of poverty-stricken people all across China, larger than the above-mentioned rural poor people at the same period and under the same standards.
- 18.
The 2005 poverty standard at the purchasing power parity of US$1.25 per day represents the same purchasing power as the 2011 standard, but due to slightly different calculation methods, the produced poverty headcount ratios are different. You can refer to Francisco Ferreira et al., “The international poverty line has just been raised to 1.90 dollars a day, but global poverty is basically unchanged.
How is that even possible?”, https://blogs.worldbank.org/developmenttalk/international-poverty-line-has-just-been-raised-190-day-global-povertybasically-unchanged-how-even. Retrieval time: March 12, 2021.
- 19.
The Millennium Development Goals Report (2021).
- 20.
Guterres (2021).
- 21.
State Council Information Office (2016).
- 22.
Zhi et al. (2015).
- 23.
Pingfan (2020).
- 24.
Sangui (2018).
- 25.
Fang (2018).
- 26.
Gill et al. (2016).
- 27.
As calculated according to data from China Statistical Yearbook and Poverty Monitoring Report of Rural China for the past years.
- 28.
As calculated according to data from the Poverty Monitoring Report of Rural China for the past years issued by the National Statistical Bureau.
- 29.
China turned marginal farmland into forest or grassland in 20 years (1999–2019), Website of National Forestry and Grassland Administration, http://www.forestry.gov.cn/html/tghl/tghl-9341/20200630//3833040795001/file/20200630114248886864236.pdf. Retrieval time: Jan. 30, 2021.
- 30.
Zhou (2016).
- 31.
Poverty Monitoring Report of Rural China published by the National Bureau of Statistics since 2000 provided sources and the purposes of use of external funds for the poverty counties.
- 32.
As calculated at the 2005 constant prices, the first poverty line and the current poverty line are 683 yuan and 1,742 respectively.
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Wei, H., Wu, G., Tan, X. (2022). Targeted Poverty Alleviation: China’s Road of Poverty Reduction Toward Common Prosperity. In: Wei, H., Wang, L. (eds) Poverty Reduction in China. International Research on Poverty Reduction. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-19-5994-3_1
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