State Council Information Office of the People's Republic of China

“ In recent years, to help impoverished people experiencing difficulties in achieving self-development, some localities are actively experimenting on poverty alleviation through asset investments. With poverty reduction as the ultimate goal, poverty alleviation funds and other funds for rural areas are invested in infrastructure construction and industrial development in poverty-stricken areas, and the assets are quantified as shares owned by the households with a partial or permanent inability to increase their property income. ”

“ China will continue to honor international obligations commensurate with the stage and status of its own development. It will strengthen exchanges and cooperation with developing countries and international organizations in the fields of poverty alleviation and human rights. It will promote the sharing of advanced concepts and experience in these fields through multiple channels such as foreign aid, project cooperation, technology transfer, and think-tank exchanges, in order to advance the vigorous development of the causes of poverty alleviation and human rights throughout the world. ”

“ Taking poverty reduction as a major element of economic development, China promotes poverty reduction alongside economic growth, combines development-oriented poverty alleviation and socio-economic development, treats poverty alleviation through development as the main focus of the economic and social development plan, coordinates the development of poverty reduction and human rights protection, and achieves effective interaction between plans for poverty reduction and elimination, national economic and social development, and national human rights action. ”

“ Since the initiation of reform and opening up in the late 1970s, the Chinese government has worked without fail to alleviate poverty - establishing special poverty-relief institutions, determining targeted areas and population, allocating specialized funds, formulating poverty standards and special preferential policies adapted to China's national conditions, and steering its policy of poverty alleviation through development. ”

“ The UN Millennium Development Goals Report 2015 shows that the proportion of people living in extreme poverty in China fell by half from 61 percent in 1990 to below 30 percent in 2002, and on down to 4.2 percent in 2014. The number of citizens China has raised from poverty accounts for 70 percent of the world's total. With the most people lifted out of poverty, China has led other countries to realize the UN Millennium Development Goal and made an enormous contribution to poverty reduction worldwide. ”

“ A nationwide information network for poverty alleviation has been set up and each poor household and poor village has been identified and registered through a process of application, appraisal, announcement to the public, and level-by-level approval, to ensure the public's right to know and to participate. The state has applied democratic and scientific decision making, given full respect to the development interests of people in need, and invited them to participate in decision-making concerning poverty alleviation, and the implementation, management and supervision of programs. ”

“ By exploiting its political and institutional advantages, China has formed a trans-regional, trans- departmental, and trans-industrial poverty reduction process to which all social sectors contribute through the mechanism of "Party leadership, government guidance and social participation." ”

“ Protection of impoverished women's rights has been enhanced. The government has carried out the Program for the Development of Chinese Women (2011-2020) , formulating and implementing policies and measures to protect poor women's rights and interests. It has strengthened education and training for women in poor areas, training more than 2 million women in rural areas of central and western regions of China. The government has implemented the small-loan guarantee program and a financial interest discount policy for women to encourage urban and rural women to find employment or start businesses. ”

“ The government publicizes funding arrangements and program updates to ensure transparent operation and institutionalize access to information as a regular practice. The state has entrusted relevant scientific institutions, social organizations and other independent third parties to assess the accuracy of processes to identify and to deregister the poor population, to measure the satisfaction of those receiving assistance tailored to the conditions of their own household or village, and other indexes. ”

“ The fourth is the high risk of a return to poverty - a large number of poor households struggle to remain free of poverty, and can be pushed back into poverty as a result of factors such as natural disaster, illness, or issues involving education, marriage and housing; they therefore rejoin the existing impoverished population.
It is an essential requirement of socialism as well as a key mission of the CPC as the ruling party to eradicate poverty, improve people's living standards, and achieve common prosperity among the people. ”

“ The central government has given more financial support to communications infrastructure construction in impoverished areas, and encouraged enterprises to shoulder social responsibilities, so as to eliminate the "digital divide" in poor areas. It has worked hard to promote IT application in poor villages, grant Internet access to towns and townships and broadband access to administrative villages, spread information in the countryside, and do other work. Thus it has effectively improved communications infrastructure in poor rural areas. ”

“ Registered rural families eligible for subsistence allowances are included in the subsistence allowance system in accordance with established procedures, and they receive the allowances based on the gap between their per capita household income and local subsistence allowance standards. Rural families covered by the subsistence allowances and eligible for poverty reduction programs are registered in accordance with established procedures, and receive help and support based on the different causes of their poverty. ”

“ It takes targeted poverty reduction and elimination as the basic strategy, with differentiated and targeted measures, and provides aid and guarantees for all those who qualify.
-- Prioritizing social fairness and justice, and striving to bring benefits and common prosperity to all. Focusing on ensuring and improving public well-being, China encourages institutional and organizational innovation, and promotes social fairness and justice. ”

“ Since the 18th CPC National Congress held in 2012, aimed at eliminating poverty and better protecting the people's rights to live and to develop in impoverished areas, the CPC Central Committee led by General Secretary Xi Jinping has committed China to pursuing innovative, balanced and eco-friendly development featuring openness and sharing, to making best use of its political and institutional strengths, and to implementing the basic strategy of taking targeted measures for poverty alleviation. ”

“ By the end of 2015, the number of insured around China had reached 505 million, 148 million people had received insurance payments, 95 percent being rural residents; there were 27,248 homes for the elderly with 2.49 million beds in rural areas; day-care services covered more than 50 percent of rural communities; and a system of old-age service subsidies for the elderly in financial difficulties had been established in 20 provinces and equivalent units, while a system of nursing subsidies for disabled elderly had been set up in 17 provinces and equivalent units. ”

“ By developing farm production and animal farming, and guiding workers to travel to seek employment elsewhere, China has seen increases in the income of resettled farmers and migrant workers, with faster progress in eradicating poverty and achieving prosperity. In 2016 the Chinese government has initiated a new round of resettlement programs for its impoverished population, with increased funds from central government, and further raised subsidy standards. ”

“ Other political parties have been encouraged to exercise supervision over poverty alleviation work. The central committees of China's eight non-CPC parties have been paired up with the eight poorest provinces and equivalent units in central and western China, their main role being to supervise the activities for identifying the poor, and lifting them out of poverty. The state has strengthened supervision over disciplined execution and auditing in poverty alleviation, and launched a special campaign to prevent and address abuses of power in this field. ”

“ To support the poor in developing their businesses and increasing incomes, the government has developed innovative methods of microfinance that provide registered poor households with collateral-free small loans, up to RMB50,000 on a three-year term, at benchmark interest rates, with interest rates subsidy from government poverty alleviation funds and risk compensation from county-level funds. ”

“ It has introduced policy-based funds for development, expanded funding sources, and strengthened follow-up support to relocated people, ensuring that each resettled household is lifted out of poverty.
Poverty eradication through ecological conservation is making progress. In poverty-stricken areas, the state promotes the protection of natural forest resources, returning farmlands to forests and grazing land to grasslands, controlling the sources of sandstorms affecting the Beijing- Tianjin area, controlling stony desertification, and protecting biological diversity. ”