China raises rural poverty line

China raises rural poverty line | World news | guardian.co.uk

A sharp upward revision in the official poverty line, announced by the government on Tuesday, means that 128 million Chinese in rural areas now qualify as poor, 100 million more than under the previous standard.

The new threshold of about $1 a day is nearly double the previous amount. While the revised poverty line is still below the World Bank threshold of $1.25 a day, the change brings China closer to international norms and better reflects the country's overall higher standards of living after three decades of buoyant growth.

"The previous poverty line underestimated the number of poor people in rural China," the official newspaper China Daily quoted Wang Sangui, a rural development expert at Renmin University, as saying. "Only 2.8% of the rural population was officially considered poor, which was lower than in many developed countries such as the United States, which has a poverty rate of about 15%."

With the higher threshold, more people qualify for government assistance. Funding for poverty relief is also being raised more than 20% this year to 27bn yuan ($4.2bn), the China Daily reported.

Comment:

China is doing it all wrong. China should have lowered the poverty line in stead of raising it. By lowering the poverty line to, say, 50 cents US per day per person, China would have wiped out any poverty in China completely, while leaving the US with 15% poor with their over US$10,000 per year per person, and enjoying only free education, school lunches, health care, subsidized housing, and food stamps.

And US$4.2bn is rich.  US$4.2bn for 128 million poor would provide  US$32.81 each for a year !!  These people are truly blessed.  That's at least 32 meals for the year.

And China holds US$trillions as reserve.  These are certainly not for the poor.