Poverty Alleviation: Reflecting 40 Years of Reform and Opening-up
By Zhou Shaojie |
chinawatch.cn |
Updated: 2019-02-26 15:40
Over the past 40 years, since the start of the reform and opening-up, China’s achievement in poverty eradication has been without parallel. Indeed, the country has escaped the “poverty trap” to reach the low and middle income stage of development. According to the World Bank's international poverty line (expenditure standard of $1.9 per person per day), China’s poverty incidence was as high as 84 percent, with approximately 840 million people living below the absolute poverty line.
By 2015, China’s poverty incidence had fallen to 0.7 percent.
According to the 2010 national poverty line standard, between 1978 and 2017 the number of people in rural poverty fell by 740 million, a reduction in rural poverty incidence from 97.5 percent to 3.1 percent.
Meanwhile, in 2017, China’s Engel coefficient, a measure proposed by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, reached 29.3 percent, just inside the most affluent range of less than 30 percent.
As these figures indicate, the overall living standard of nearly 1.4 billion Chinese people is now relatively high.
During the past 40 years, China has created a unique “poverty reduction miracle” in the history of world development, and penned a glorious chapter in the history of humanity’s fight against poverty.
The direct causes and most valuable lessons of China's “poverty reduction miracle” can be summarized into three main points.
First, since 1978, under the leadership of China’s Communist Party, we have persisted with a strategy that places economic construction at the center, steadily promoted reforms in various fields, continuously increased the level of opening-up, and gradually established a socialist market economy system in accordance with China's national conditions and development path, while actively generating economic opportunities for the nation’s people.
During the period from 1978 to 2017, the per capita disposable income of China’s population increased by as much as 24 times, while the incidence of poverty declined accordingly.
Separately, the level of urbanization rose from 17.9 percent in 1978 to 58.5 percent in 2017, and the urban population increased by 640 million, equivalent to twice the United States’ population. During the same period, the number of rural poor decreased by 740 million. Together, these developments have greatly reduced the incidence of rural poverty and helped China take the lead in ending absolute poverty among all developing countries.
Secondly, China’s commitment to people-centered development, and the implementation of a people-oriented social development policy has greatly promoted the country’s education and health care.
There has been a historic advance in the level of human development, from low level (1980-2000) to mid-level (2000-2010) and ultimately, to high level (after 2011).
In terms of progress in education, in 2017 a total of 7.61 million students were admitted into universities, compared with 270,000 in 1977, when the national college entrance examination was reintroduced.
The gross enrollment rate of higher education increased from 3.4 percent in 1990 to 45.7 percent in 2017, exceeding the average of upper-middle income countries.
The average number of years of education for the working-age population increased from less than five years in 1981 to 10.5 years in 2017.
With respect to development in health, life expectancy rose from 67.8 years in 1982 to 76.7 years in 2017, an increase of 10 years, while the major health indicators are better than the average level among middle and high income countries.
Over the past 40 years, the development of the social sector has not only provided support for economic growth with human capital, but has also become a crucial driving force for poverty reduction.
Thirdly, China's ongoing implementation of the poverty reduction strategy is a classic relay race, involving the execution of various targeted poverty reduction policies in different development periods.
In 1980, the poverty alleviation fund was set up. And in 1986, the State Council Leading Group for Poverty Alleviation and Development was established.
Then, eight years later, in 1994, large-scale poverty alleviation and development efforts began in earnest. These included the “August 7 Poverty Alleviation Plan,” which marked a shift from poverty alleviation for relief to poverty alleviation for development.
Also, in 2007, China’s poverty alleviation strategy underwent a second major adjustment – from a regional poverty alleviation and development strategy to a combination of social security poverty alleviation and developmental poverty alleviation, with special priority given to poverty-stricken villages.
A third major adjustment, a change of emphasis from overall poverty alleviation to precisely targeted poverty alleviation and eradication, took place in 2013. By 2017, this new approach had reduced the number of rural poor in China by nearly 52 million. China’s precise poverty reduction strategy received acclaim from United Nations’ Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, who believes that “precise poverty reduction is the only way to help the poorest and achieve the ambitious goals of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development[A reference/footnote is needed here. ].”
The three factors outlined above have brought about China’s "poverty reduction miracle". Crucial to their implementation and success has been the leadership of the Communist Party of China, a fact that reflects the essential characteristic of socialism: that is, "poverty is not socialism"[Is this a quote? If so, a reference is needed.].
China’s experience thus exemplifies the advantage of the path of socialism with Chinese characteristics, while it also provides the strategy and wisdom needed for the UN to eliminate rural poverty.
On Dec 20, 2018, under the initiative of and with strong encouragement from China, the 73rd session of the UN General Assembly adopted the draft resolution “Eradicating Rural Poverty to Implement the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development” submitted by the “Group of 77 and China.” Under the terms of this resolution, the first ever to be adopted by the UN General Assembly on the elimination of rural poverty, a new policy framework will be built. And this will include infrastructure construction, inclusive finance, elimination of the digital divide, increased employment, promotion of quality education, strengthening of social security systems, boosting of international cooperation, and the implementation of precise poverty alleviation.
At present, poverty remains the world’s biggest development challenge, as there are still more than 700 million people living in extreme poverty globally.
China's experience in poverty reduction will inevitably have a positive impact on the push for poverty reduction, especially in developing countries.
And it can be expected that through its success in comprehensively building a well-off society and completely eradicating poverty by 2020, China will shift from the “quantity” poverty reduction phase to the “quality” phase, meaning, China will continue to improve the living standards of the low-income population and to reinforce the “poverty reduction miracle”. And in doing so it will contribute strength and experience to the world’s efforts in poverty reduction.
The author is associate professor of Tsinghua University and research fellow of Institute for Contemporary China Studies.
The author contributed this article to China Watch exclusively. The views expressed do not necessarily reflect those of China Watch.
All rights reserved. Copying or sharing of any content for other than personal use is prohibited without prior written permission.
Over the past 40 years, since the start of the reform and opening-up, China’s achievement in poverty eradication has been without parallel. Indeed, the country has escaped the “poverty trap” to reach the low and middle income stage of development. According to the World Bank's international poverty line (expenditure standard of $1.9 per person per day), China’s poverty incidence was as high as 84 percent, with approximately 840 million people living below the absolute poverty line.
By 2015, China’s poverty incidence had fallen to 0.7 percent.
According to the 2010 national poverty line standard, between 1978 and 2017 the number of people in rural poverty fell by 740 million, a reduction in rural poverty incidence from 97.5 percent to 3.1 percent.
Meanwhile, in 2017, China’s Engel coefficient, a measure proposed by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, reached 29.3 percent, just inside the most affluent range of less than 30 percent.
As these figures indicate, the overall living standard of nearly 1.4 billion Chinese people is now relatively high.
During the past 40 years, China has created a unique “poverty reduction miracle” in the history of world development, and penned a glorious chapter in the history of humanity’s fight against poverty.
The direct causes and most valuable lessons of China's “poverty reduction miracle” can be summarized into three main points.
First, since 1978, under the leadership of China’s Communist Party, we have persisted with a strategy that places economic construction at the center, steadily promoted reforms in various fields, continuously increased the level of opening-up, and gradually established a socialist market economy system in accordance with China's national conditions and development path, while actively generating economic opportunities for the nation’s people.
During the period from 1978 to 2017, the per capita disposable income of China’s population increased by as much as 24 times, while the incidence of poverty declined accordingly.
Separately, the level of urbanization rose from 17.9 percent in 1978 to 58.5 percent in 2017, and the urban population increased by 640 million, equivalent to twice the United States’ population. During the same period, the number of rural poor decreased by 740 million. Together, these developments have greatly reduced the incidence of rural poverty and helped China take the lead in ending absolute poverty among all developing countries.
Secondly, China’s commitment to people-centered development, and the implementation of a people-oriented social development policy has greatly promoted the country’s education and health care.
There has been a historic advance in the level of human development, from low level (1980-2000) to mid-level (2000-2010) and ultimately, to high level (after 2011).
In terms of progress in education, in 2017 a total of 7.61 million students were admitted into universities, compared with 270,000 in 1977, when the national college entrance examination was reintroduced.
The gross enrollment rate of higher education increased from 3.4 percent in 1990 to 45.7 percent in 2017, exceeding the average of upper-middle income countries.
The average number of years of education for the working-age population increased from less than five years in 1981 to 10.5 years in 2017.
With respect to development in health, life expectancy rose from 67.8 years in 1982 to 76.7 years in 2017, an increase of 10 years, while the major health indicators are better than the average level among middle and high income countries.
Over the past 40 years, the development of the social sector has not only provided support for economic growth with human capital, but has also become a crucial driving force for poverty reduction.
Thirdly, China's ongoing implementation of the poverty reduction strategy is a classic relay race, involving the execution of various targeted poverty reduction policies in different development periods.
In 1980, the poverty alleviation fund was set up. And in 1986, the State Council Leading Group for Poverty Alleviation and Development was established.
Then, eight years later, in 1994, large-scale poverty alleviation and development efforts began in earnest. These included the “August 7 Poverty Alleviation Plan,” which marked a shift from poverty alleviation for relief to poverty alleviation for development.
Also, in 2007, China’s poverty alleviation strategy underwent a second major adjustment – from a regional poverty alleviation and development strategy to a combination of social security poverty alleviation and developmental poverty alleviation, with special priority given to poverty-stricken villages.
A third major adjustment, a change of emphasis from overall poverty alleviation to precisely targeted poverty alleviation and eradication, took place in 2013. By 2017, this new approach had reduced the number of rural poor in China by nearly 52 million. China’s precise poverty reduction strategy received acclaim from United Nations’ Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, who believes that “precise poverty reduction is the only way to help the poorest and achieve the ambitious goals of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development[A reference/footnote is needed here. ].”
The three factors outlined above have brought about China’s "poverty reduction miracle". Crucial to their implementation and success has been the leadership of the Communist Party of China, a fact that reflects the essential characteristic of socialism: that is, "poverty is not socialism"[Is this a quote? If so, a reference is needed.].
China’s experience thus exemplifies the advantage of the path of socialism with Chinese characteristics, while it also provides the strategy and wisdom needed for the UN to eliminate rural poverty.
On Dec 20, 2018, under the initiative of and with strong encouragement from China, the 73rd session of the UN General Assembly adopted the draft resolution “Eradicating Rural Poverty to Implement the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development” submitted by the “Group of 77 and China.” Under the terms of this resolution, the first ever to be adopted by the UN General Assembly on the elimination of rural poverty, a new policy framework will be built. And this will include infrastructure construction, inclusive finance, elimination of the digital divide, increased employment, promotion of quality education, strengthening of social security systems, boosting of international cooperation, and the implementation of precise poverty alleviation.
At present, poverty remains the world’s biggest development challenge, as there are still more than 700 million people living in extreme poverty globally.
China's experience in poverty reduction will inevitably have a positive impact on the push for poverty reduction, especially in developing countries.
And it can be expected that through its success in comprehensively building a well-off society and completely eradicating poverty by 2020, China will shift from the “quantity” poverty reduction phase to the “quality” phase, meaning, China will continue to improve the living standards of the low-income population and to reinforce the “poverty reduction miracle”. And in doing so it will contribute strength and experience to the world’s efforts in poverty reduction.
The author is associate professor of Tsinghua University and research fellow of Institute for Contemporary China Studies.
The author contributed this article to China Watch exclusively. The views expressed do not necessarily reflect those of China Watch.
All rights reserved. Copying or sharing of any content for other than personal use is prohibited without prior written permission.
