China Makes Headway in Poverty Reduction
China has made historic achievements in fighting poverty over the past decades, making the country a major contributor to the world’s poverty reduction endeavours.
This year marks the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China, and a crucial stage for the country’s poverty-alleviation campaign as it vows to eradicate poverty by 2020. The following are some facts and figures about the progress the country has made in its poverty alleviation campaign:
■ Over the past 40 years, more than
700 million Chinese people have cast off poverty, representing over 70 percent of global poverty reduction.
■ Between 2013 and 2018, China has lifted 82.39 million rural poor residents out of poverty, with an annual average of 13.73 million people casting off poverty, more than the entire population of Greece.
■ The country still had 16.6 million rural people living below the national poverty line at the end of 2018, with more than half of them living in the country’s less-developed western region.
■ In 2018, the annual per-capita disposable income of rural residents in poverty-hit regions stood at 10,371 yuan (about FJ$3210.63), double its 2012 level. Continued income growth boosted consumption, with the percapita rural consumption in poor areas reaching 8956 yuan (FJ$2767.78) last year, representing an average annual increase of 11.4 per cent.
■ China also offered experience and assistance to other countries in their poverty-reduction efforts. By the end of October 2015, the country had provided 400 billion yuan (FJ$123.61bn) of assistance to 166 countries and international organisations.