THE poverty population in 2011 was estimated at about 150 million in China if the poverty line of 1 USD per day for expenditure is taken into account. A total of 85% of the poverty population is from the rural areas, particularly from the west regions. However, China has successfully achieved in eradicating poverty and hunger by becoming the first developing country to complete the Millennium Development Goal 1 (eradicate extreme poverty and hunger) Target before 2015.
According to the data released by the World Bank in 2010, in the past 25 years 70% of people who had been lifted out of poverty were Chinese. In view of this, China has made the greatest contribution to human rights by lifting a large population out of poverty.
How could China achieve such a historically unprecedented poverty reduction? Chinese governmental strategies are the main drivers with regard to poverty alleviation. To alleviate and eradicate poverty, China has taken three approaches, namely Development-oriented Strategy, Social Security-backed Strategy, and Human Capital Strategy.
The Chinese government has always prioritized rural poverty reduction when planning socio-economic development. The Chinese Government has regularly increased the funding for poverty reduction. Development-oriented Strategy emphasizes infrastructure buildings in rural areas, and economic growth, and pushed for income increase of rural residents. Under this strategy, eradicating poverty at the village level was well planned with poor 148 000 villages being targeted in 2011.
In line with this strategy, many poverty-related projects which are aided primarily by government development funds have been implemented successfully. Between 1980 and 2009 China allocated over RMB 198 billion for its special poverty alleviation fund, with average annual increases of 16.5%.
The poverty reduction and development programs began in 1986 in a well-planned and organized way, and the basic needs of the rural poor have gradually been met over time. Social Security-backed Strategy aims to deal with issue of subsistence support. In 2007, the Chinese Government made preparations for the establishment of a minimum living standard allowance system and institutional arrangements were made to meet the basic needs of the rural poor. Minimum living allowances have been budgeted and provided to those residents with certain income standards in both rural and urban areas. In 2010, a total 23 078 000 urban residents and 51 796 000 rural residents were the beneficiaries of this support. The number of the poor people in China’s rural areas fell from 85 million people (1990) to 35.97 million people (2009).
Rapid ageing and constant change of knowledge structure in the 21st century of the Chinese society direct poverty alleviation efforts toward human capital investment, particular in education and health. Education is a prerequisite for the development of human capital which in turn is an important factor in a country’s overall development. With a reasonably good access to education, a greater share of the population will become educated, and that will reduce inequality and poverty.
The Chinese Government has increased government financing and investment in education and health, implementing an early education plan for 3-5 year-old kids especially in rural areas, nutrition education for pregnant women and nutrition intervention for 6-24 months-old infants. No country has exerted itself to educate its people as China has done and nowhere else can we find that education investment has been prioritized as in China.
China improved its human capital, opened up to foreign trade and investment, and created a better investment climate for the private sector. Particularly in the coastal areas, cities have developed their investment climates. In these cities, the private sector accounts for 90% or more of manufacturing assets and production.
The open-up reform is often referred to in brief as the “open door policy”. It initially welcomed foreign investment into “special economic zones”. Some of these zones were very large, amounting to urban areas of 20 million people or more. The positive impact of foreign investment in these locations led to a more general opening up of the economy to foreign investment, with the result that a huge number of populations were employed with their income being increased and their living standards upgraded.
Poverty limits personal development opportunities and leads to low life expectancy and is the worst threat to human rights. With the new Silk Road economic belt in the western areas and the Maritime Silk Road under way, China is bound to eradicate poverty completely in the near future.