Feb 11, 2018
China has lifted 68.53 million people out of poverty over the past five years after Chinese President Xi Jinping took power, according to a report.
The report published by China’s State Council Leading Group Office of Poverty Alleviation and Development said it was equivalent to an annual reduction of at least 13 million.
The country’s poverty rate dropped from 10.2 per cent in 2012 to 3.1 per cent in 2017 which is an impressive progress in poverty reduction, it said.
China aims to eliminate absolute poverty by 2020 as part of the creation of a moderately prosperous society.
There were around 30 million Chinese living below the national poverty line at the end of last year, state-run Xinhua news agency reported.
China says it lifted over 600 million people above poverty in the last three decades.
Xi, who started his second five-year term last year, made poverty alleviation a priority since he took over in 2013.
Policy makers have listed poverty alleviation as one of China’s “three tough battles” for the next three years, along with risk prevention and pollution control.
More than 10 million people will shake off poverty in 2018. About 100 counties are expected to be removed from the poverty list, according to the leading group, the report said.
A county can be removed from the list if no more than 2 per cent of its residents earn less than 2,300 yuan (around USD 350) at 2010 prices. In China’s underdeveloped western regions, the threshold is 3 per cent, it said.
There were still 30.46 million rural people living below the national poverty line at the end of 2017, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said.
