CHINA will lift its official poverty line to an annual per capita income of 2,300 yuan (US$360) in rural areas, or about the equivalent of US$1 per day per person, Xinhua News Agency reported Tuesday.

    The near doubling of the existing poverty gauge of 1,274 yuan annually could increase the official number of poor people in China to 100 million or more, according to domestic researchers and analysts. It could also trigger new Central Government aid for families and local governments.

    Li Shi, a professor at Beijing Normal University, told media earlier that the number of poor people could reach 130 million if the poverty line was increased to 2,000 yuan.

    The new poverty line, 92 percent higher than the existing benchmark, is still short of the US$1.25-per-day measure used by the World Bank and is far below the United States’ line of US$17,347 per year for a three-member family.

    According to the national statistics agency, average annual rural per capita income was 5,919 yuan last year, up 14.9 percent from 2009. The average per capita income of the poorest 20 percent of rural households was 1,869 yuan last year.

    The widening wealth gap between urban and rural areas, different regions and between the rich and poor in China was worrisome, said Fan Xiaojian, head of the Leading Group Office of Poverty Alleviation and Development under the State Council.

    The average per capita income of China’s urban residents was 3.23 times that of rural residents in 2010, he said in an interview with Xinhua.

    China increased spending on reducing poverty from 12.75 billion yuan in 2001 to 34.93 billion yuan in 2010, an average annual growth rate of 11.9 percent, according to a government white paper on poverty reduction released this month.

    The country had reduced poverty in rural populations to 26.88 million at the end of last year from 94.22 million a decade ago, according to the white paper.

    (SD-Agencies)