This blog is the first piece of a series produced to commemorate End Poverty Day (October 17), focusing on China – which has contributed more than any other country to global poverty reduction – and its efforts to end extreme poverty by 2020.   

China’s success in poverty reduction has attracted worldwide attention. In 1982, China launched the “Sanxi Program” in the poorest regions in Gansu and Ningxia, marking the beginning of planned, organized and large-scale poverty alleviation efforts nationwide. In 1986, the government established the State Council Leading Group of Poverty Alleviation and Development, identified poor counties, set a national poverty line, and created special funds for poverty alleviation. In 1994, China launched the Seven-Year Priority Poverty Alleviation Program that was designed to lift 80 million people out of absolute poverty within seven years from 1994 to 2000. In 2001 and 2011, two ten-year poverty alleviation programs were launched to continue the war against poverty. During those three decades, the number of poor people fell sharply, and living conditions and access to public services improved markedly in the poorer regions.
 
Between 1978 and 2010, the number of poor people in China fell from 250 million to 26.88 million measured with the 1986 official poverty line. Measured with the 2011 poverty line, the number of poor people fell from 165.67 million in 1978 to 55.75 million in 2015. Between 1981 and 2011, the global poor population fell from 1,938 million to 1,011 million measured at US$1.25 a day, with 927 million people lifted out of poverty. In the same period, the number of poor people in China fell from 838 million to 84.17 million, with 753 million people lifted out of poverty.
 
China became the first developing country to achieve the first Millennium Development Goal of halving poverty. Between 1990 and 2011, China lifted 439 million poor people out of poverty, contributing significantly to global poverty reduction. With continuous increase in grain production for 11 years since 2004, China has been able to feed nearly 20% of the world’s population with less than 10% of world’s cultivated land.
 
In the same period, per capita incomes among rural farmers increased rapidly. Since 2001, per capita rural net incomes in poverty-stricken counties have increased faster than the national average. Rural infrastructure and public services have improved markedly, including electrification, universal access to compulsory education, rural minimum living standards guarantee scheme, and new rural cooperative medical care.  
 
The country’s poverty reduction offers lessons for other countries. China has carried out poverty reduction in a globalized context, driven by fast economic growth and focused on building poor people’s capacity for self-development. Its approach combines government leadership and support from all social sectors with farmers playing a major role, and integrates general and special favorable policies, poverty alleviation programs and social safety…

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