Poverty alleviation is the core political task that the current Chinese central government decides to complete. According to the documents of the Fifth Plenary Session of the 18th Central Committee in October 2015 and the decision of the Central Committee and the State Council on the poverty alleviation in the end of 2015, the overall goal of the 13th Five-Year Plan (2016-2020) for poverty alleviation is that by 2020, the rural poor will face no livelihood problem, while compulsory education, basic medical care, and housing security will be guaranteed. The rate of the increase of the per capita disposable income of farmers in poverty-stricken areas will be higher than the national average, and the main areas of basic public services will be closer to the national average, thereby ensuring that the rural poor under the current standards will be lifted out of poverty, and all the poverty-stricken counties will be free from poverty, thereby improving the overall regional situation. The Chinese government has promised that, based on the completion poverty alleviation of 14.42 million people in 2015, from 2016 onward the poverty alleviation task will be targeting on 10 million poor population every year.
To achieve the goal of poverty alleviation of the 13th Five-Year Plan, China's poverty reduction task is very arduous. First, there is a huge number to tackle. By the end of 2015, there were 14 contiguous poor areas with special difficulties, 832 poverty-stricken counties, and 128,000 poverty-stricken villages with a population of 55.75 million. Second, the difficulty is huge. Most of the population who have not been out of poverty are more impoverished and have weaker self-development capabilities, making the cost of poverty alleviation higher and more challenging. Third, there is a limited time. China has proposed to reduce poverty by more than 10 million people per year on average from 2016. Fourth, it is easy to become impoverish again. Many poor households have poor ability to get rid of poverty. Because of natural disasters, illnesses, schooling, marriage, and housing, many are back to poverty, and new poor people will emerge.
Has China completed its poverty alleviation task in accordance with the progress? According to the Chinese National Bureau of Statistics' sample survey of 160,000 households in 31 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities in the Chinese mainland, based on the current national rural poverty standards, at the end of 2017 China's rural poor population was 30.46 million, a decrease of 12.89 million from the end of the previous year; the incidence of poverty was 3.1%, down 1.4% from the end of the previous year. It is divided into three major regions, in 2017, the rural poverty population in the eastern region was 3 million, a decrease of 1.9 million from the previous year; the rural poverty population in the central region was 11.12 million, a decrease of 4.82 million over the previous year; the rural poor population in the western region was 16.34 million, a decrease of 6.17 million over the previous year.
Despite the great achievements in China's poverty alleviation work, in reality, there are still many notable problems. According to the estimation of some poverty alleviation experts, about 100 of the 832 poverty-stricken counties are basically not poor, and it is easy to get them out of the poverty category; in the past, being in the poverty-stricken county category could let these counties get more transfer payments. There are also more than 300 counties have certain development conditions. By striving to develop industries and other means, poverty alleviation standards can be achieved; the remaining hundreds of counties are very difficult to achieve poverty alleviation. According to recent research by Anbound on some poor areas in Shanxi Province, there are still many rural areas that have not changed significantly in the past 50 years and are still in extreme poverty.
According to our research and follow-up research, there are still many issues worthy of attention in China's poverty alleviation work, especially for poverty alleviation in extremely poor areas.
The first is the relationship between poverty alleviation and aging. In the current poverty alleviation work in rural areas, aging has created a real obstacle. Affected by the urbanization process, the proportion of rural left-behind elderly people has increased. With the increase in age, many elderly people in rural areas have gradually lost their ability to work. In the case of inability to work, the situation of returning to poverty or increasing poverty will often occur. The problem of aging and poverty is intertwined, and it is a challenge for the capability of the government.
The second is the issue of formalism in poverty alleviation. In order to complete the poverty alleviation task, grassroots poverty alleviation workers need to fill in a large number of forms and statistics. In some places, there are even more than 100 forms. As a result, poverty alleviation has become a form of filling work. If China really wants to achieve poverty alleviation, it must do something about such formalism.
The third is the relationship between poverty alleviation and urbanization. Poverty alleviation work is not limited to rural areas; it has a lot to do with urbanization. In the survey, Anbound researchers learned that farmers who have children working in cities and towns are more likely to be out of poverty. Some rural elderly said that the money sent back by their children to work at least allows them to buy enough food. The farmers who are without working children will have deeper, more immediate poverty level.
The fourth is the issue of poverty alleviation and land system reform. Rural development must support the reform of the rural land system. After the "Separation of the Three-Rights (land ownership, land contract right and land management right)", effectively promoting the transfer of rights and interests in rural contracted land and rely on marketization and capital to activate resources is a genuine problem in rural areas. In our research, we found that due to the economic and regional differences in rural areas, the land transfer is actually not suitable in many areas, or the income after the transfer is far from the extent of achieving poverty alleviation.
The fifth is the issue of poverty alleviation and cadre work. Reducing poverty in rural areas is related to the quality, ability and mental state of the cadre team. It should be noted that poverty alleviation has become a way for some to enrich themselves through resource and project allocation and in some poor areas. Even if it is poverty alleviation, it has become an opportunity for a few officials to benefit themselves. For example, in some poverty-stricken areas, the cultivation of pigs by the farmers require the approval of county-level officials; and the distribution of poverty support funds will also give priority to the own people of such officials.
Final analysis conclusion:
Poverty alleviation is a long-term and challenging work in China. It requires a lot of efforts, and there should be innovation in the related policy. It also needs to break formalism to really help the poor; only through this way, it will be possible to achieve the poverty alleviation goal.
