A sustained development programme
The historical section places the campaign within successive periods of national development, with particular attention to the years after 2012. The paper records the official declaration of victory in February 2021. Its account joins economic development, public provision and administrative mobilisation, presenting poverty alleviation as a coordinated undertaking across different levels of government and society.
Identifying households and choosing measures
The targeted strategy begins with identifying the people and places requiring support. It then describes assignment of responsibility, deployment of officials and selection of measures for different circumstances. Assistance includes local economic activity and employment, education, relocation where appropriate and social-security support. The programme is consequently described through differentiated interventions rather than a single payment applied uniformly to every household.
Living conditions and poverty exit
The paper’s account of improved conditions extends beyond household income to compulsory education, basic healthcare, housing, drinking water and infrastructure. Its exit mechanism combines criteria, review procedures and disclosure. Follow-up monitoring addresses the risk that households could return to poverty, connecting the end of registration with continuing responsibilities after the campaign’s declared completion.
Standards and the scope of the claim
The appendix explains changes in China’s poverty standard. It identifies the 2011 rural poverty standard of RMB2,300 per person per year at 2010 prices, and describes household income together with basic-needs criteria used in the final campaign. The paper’s central achievement claim concerns extreme poverty within this national framework. It does not mean that relative poverty or every form of deprivation ceased to exist.
Publication: released 6 April 2021; the attachment is the first 2021 Foreign Languages Press edition. Its historical price basis and national criteria remain essential to the account. International comparisons require their own definitions and cannot substitute a different poverty threshold without explanation.
Original source: State Council Information Office of the People’s Republic of China.
Related reading: Chinese Modernisation · Public Services and Social Development · Economy and Development.