China’s fight against poverty is the story of how one of the world’s largest nations confronted a problem that has plagued humanity for millennia. In February 2021, Xi Jinping solemnly declared a “complete victory over extreme poverty”. Behind these words stood not just statistical indicators, but a sweeping transformation that reshaped the nation.
Imagine the scale: almost 100 million people rose above the official poverty line in just eight years. It is as if the entire population of Germany and Poland had simultaneously acquired a new socio-economic status. More than 800 counties officially classified as poor and about 128,000 villages disappeared from China’s map. Behind these figures lie new roads, schools, hospitals, water supply systems, and electricity in homes that previously lived in darkness.
Yet history is not just about reports of victory. The Chinese case is both a lesson and a challenge: how a vast bureaucratic machine learned to operate in a targeted and innovative way, what resources were mobilized, where the line lies between absolute and relative poverty, and whether such results can be sustained in the future.
-
Achievements and scope of changes
When Beijing announced the elimination of extreme poverty in 2020, the main argument was the numbers. And these numbers are truly impressive.
During the period 2013–2020, 98.99 million rural residents were lifted out of poverty. For comparison, this is more than the entire population of Vietnam or Egypt. The number of “poor counties” was reduced to zero: 832 administrative units were removed from the lists, and with them about 128 thousand villages. If we draw an analogy, it would be as if the European Union simultaneously modernized tens of thousands of the most backward communities in one decade.
This breakthrough was made possible by a huge financial infusion. According to official figures, more than 1.6 trillion yuan (≈ 250 billion US dollars) was spent on poverty alleviation programs from the central budget alone. Local budgets, state-owned banks and special funds added several trillion more. The total amount of resources invested is estimated at 7–8 trillion yuan. This is one of the largest social investments in human history.
But raw numbers do not convey the scale of the change in life. More than 9.6 million people have been relocated from mountainous and desert areas to new towns with apartments, schools and hospitals. More than 1.1 million kilometers of rural roads have been built or repaired, tens of thousands of remote villages have been connected to electricity, and access to the internet has been expanded, reaching more than 98% of rural schools in 2020.
Thus, China achieved a double result: on the one hand, it provided millions of people with basic living conditions, and on the other, it created a foundation for economic growth. It is no coincidence that the World Bank called this case “the largest poverty alleviation campaign in world history.”
-
Supporting strategy: targeting as a management innovation
Traditionally, the fight against poverty in the world has been based on universal programs: social payments, subsidies, general investments in infrastructure. China has taken a different path. In 2013, Xi Jinping proposed the concept of “targeted assistance” (targeted poverty alleviation), which became the heart of the entire campaign.
What did this mean in practice?
Each household that met the poverty criteria received a “poverty map.” Some suffered from unemployment, others from chronic illnesses or disabilities, and still others lived in remote areas without access to markets. An individual plan for overcoming poverty was prepared for each category: some were provided with jobs or vocational training, others with affordable medical care and insurance, and rural producers were provided with logistics chains and online stores.
At the management level, this meant another revolution: the vertical of responsibility. Local officials received not only a budget, but also clear KPIs to show that specific families had moved out of poverty. In some cases, leaders were even “attached” to specific villages and had to personally report on progress. This system was criticized for being too pressured, but it ensured the discipline and speed of decision-making without which large-scale programs often fizzled out.
Digitalization was also an important tool. Databases made it possible to track the status of each household, check whether programs were working, and prevent abuse. This effectively created a new generation of social analytics: from slogans like “fighting poverty” to targeted and personalized solutions.
China has demonstrated that poverty is not an abstract phenomenon, but a set of concrete barriers in the lives of concrete people. And it is precisely the targeted elimination of these barriers that has become a major breakthrough.
-
Infrastructure as the foundation of transformation
No economic reform works where there are no roads, electricity, or doctors. China understood this simple truth well and made infrastructure the main foundation of the campaign.
From 2013 to 2020, more than 1.1 million kilometers of roads were built and repaired in rural areas. To put it into perspective, that’s enough to circle the Earth 27 times. Along with the roads came bus routes that connected even remote villages to major cities. For farmers, it meant the ability to transport their produce to market, and for children, the chance to get to school without having to walk for hours.
Electrification was also a revolution: tens of thousands of remote villages received stable electricity for the first time, opening the way to modern technology and entrepreneurship. By 2020, almost 100% of rural households were electrified.
No less important has become access to the Internet. Government programs have connected 98% of rural schools and a significant part of villages to the network. This is not only an opportunity for learning or communication, but also a leap into a new economy: it is thanks to the Internet that rural producers have been able to sell tea, nuts or handicrafts through the platforms of Alibaba and JD.com. In 2020, the volume of e-commerce in agricultural products exceeded 1 trillion yuan.
A separate story is medicine. More than 1.4 million medical stations and clinics were built and renovated. For rural areas, where illness often meant financial disaster, this was a real breakthrough. In parallel, an insurance system worked: the state covered a significant part of the costs of operations and treatment.
Thus, the infrastructure breakthrough did not just make life easier. It transformed the environment in which poverty ceased to be a “doom.” When there is a road, a hospital, and the Internet, there is also a chance for economic growth.
-
Resettlement and the local economy: from “surviving” to “earning”
Infrastructure was not the solution everywhere. In the high-altitude villages of Tibet, in the desert regions of Gansu, or in areas prone to frequent flooding, any investment was quickly “eaten up” by nature. It was here that the government used the most radical tool — mass resettlement.
From 2013 to 2020, more than 9.6 million people received new housing. It's like resettling the entire population of Austria or Hungary. Entire towns with multi-story buildings, schools, hospitals, factories, and markets were built for them. Special attention was paid to the elderly: adaptation programs, social clubs, and preferential medical services were created for them. Such resettlement cost the state hundreds of billions of yuan, but it solved the problem of "geographic poverty," which was otherwise impossible to overcome.
However, overcoming poverty means not only “surviving”, but also earning a stable income. This is where the local economic development program came into play. Each region received its own model:
-
in mountainous areas, they relied on tea, medicinal herbs, and nuts;
-
in forested areas - for green tourism and eco-farms;
-
in suburban areas - for agro-processing, warehouses and logistics.
The real breakthrough was e-commerce. Special rural online platforms have allowed even small producers to enter the national market. According to the Ministry of Commerce of the People's Republic of China, in 2019-2020 alone, rural e-commerce accounted for more than 1 trillion yuan in annual turnover.
Farmer cooperation became no less important. Where one farmer could not withstand price fluctuations, a group of farms created a cooperative - and already had a chance for a stable income. This model worked even during the crisis years of the pandemic, when demand for food grew, but logistics broke down.
Thus, China built a model where the fight against poverty was not limited to cash assistance. The village acquired a new economic meaning: from a passive recipient of subsidies to an active producer and player in the national market.
-
Preventing the return of poverty: a new strategy and challenges
Overcoming poverty is only half the battle. It is equally important to ensure that people do not fall behind. That is why after 2020, China launched a large-scale program of “rural revival” (rural revitalization).
projects were preserved for them.
A key tool has been the Vulnerable Household Monitoring System. Tens of millions of people have been placed at risk — those with unstable incomes, high need for medical or care, or living in climate-risk areas. The government monitors changes in their income in real time: if a family loses their job or is hit by an elemental disaster, assistance arrives before the crisis becomes irreversible. This is effectively an early warning system for poverty, which allows for a targeted and rapid response.
However, the challenges remain serious:
-
Economic slowdown. China's growth rate is falling, which means fewer tax resources and a higher risk of social tensions.
-
Relative poverty and inequality. By international standards ($3.20–5.50 per day), tens of millions of Chinese still belong to vulnerable groups. The task now is not to “survive,” but to ensure equal access to quality services — medicine, education, the labor market.
-
Demographics. The village is rapidly aging. The government is already investing in telemedicine, elderly care centers, and employment schemes for older people. Without this, “slow poverty” of older generations may arise.
-
Climate risks. Floods, droughts, heat waves hit poor regions. China is investing billions in crop insurance, reservoir modernization, and "green jobs" for local communities.
-
Administrative challenges. The power vertical, which allowed for rapid mobilization of resources, must now learn to work more subtly. Instead of a "check-the-box plan," assess the quality of schools, the stability of income, and people's health.
The likely scenario for the coming years is to maintain the achievements and gradually expand the social architecture. Radical failures are not visible yet, but the system is in a testing phase: will it be able to move from jerks to a stable mode of operation?
Conclusions
China's poverty alleviation story is neither a miracle nor an accident. It is the result of political will, vast resources, and innovative management approaches. In just eight years, the country not only lifted nearly 100 million people out of extreme poverty, but also created a new socio-economic foundation: roads, schools, hospitals, the internet, and a targeted assistance system.
Absolute poverty by national standards has indeed been left behind. Yet far more complex challenges lie ahead: relative poverty, unequal access to services, population aging, and climate risks. If the first stage could be addressed through funding and resource mobilization, the next requires building long-term institutions that can function not in bursts, but in a stable and predictable manner.
China has demonstrated that poverty should not be seen as fate, but as a series of barriers that can be overcome. This is a lesson not only for China itself, but for the entire world. In an era of pandemic crises, inflation, and geoeconomic shifts, China’s experience remains one of the most significant achievements of recent decades. Will it become a model for other countries? Direct copying is unnecessary — but it is certainly worth studying how a large state managed to turn a complex problem into a comprehensive solution.
And this is the real value of the Chinese case: it shows that the fight against poverty is not a one-off effort, but a long road full of twists and turns, where success depends not only on rising, but on holding firm.
Vladislav Dzividzinsky
Political expert, analyst
Sources
1. State Council Information Office of China. “Poverty Alleviation: China’s Experience and Contribution” 2021. Key indicators of the campaign 2013–2020.
2. Xinhua / People’s Daily Online. “Xi declares complete victory in eradicating extreme poverty”, 2021. Translation of the key thesis: “Eliminating poverty is not the finish line, but the beginning of a new life and a new struggle”.
3. World Bank & Development Research Center of the State Council. “Four Decades of Poverty Reduction in China”, 2022. Assessment of the long-term trend of poverty reduction.
4. The Lancet (Yang L., Yu Q.). “Relocation for poverty alleviation: China’s path”, 2025. A brief overview of the logic of relocation, and the implications for access to services.
5. ChinaPower (CSIS). "Is China succeeding at eradicating poverty?", 2021. Analytical materials: targeting, infrastructure, institutions, comparison with international criteria.
6. Ministry of Civil Affairs of the PRC. 2024. Information on expanding the criteria and monitoring of low-income groups. Essence: formation of an early warning system, risk criteria, approximate coverage.
