Wu Guangqiang

CHINA will see an increase of 128 million people living under the poverty line next year. Should we be surprised? After over 30 years of economic boom, are more people getting poorer?

The answers to those questions are no and yes respectively.

No, because it is a new policy rather than new statistics that will classify more people as poor.

The Chinese Government decided on Nov. 29 at a national conference on poverty reduction to raise the poverty line for the nation's rural population. The threshold will be raised to 2,300 yuan (US$362) in annual net income for rural residents, up 92 percent from the level set in 2009. The raised poverty line will allow more people to apply for poverty relief from the government. But it is still below the World Bank's standard of US$1.25 a day.

We are taking a positive approach to fighting poverty yet, to some extent, we are losing ground. From 1985 to 2012, the threshold for poverty multiplied by 10.5 from 200 yuan in annual net income to 2,300 yuan. In the same period, China's GDP multiplied by 57. Even per capita income of rural residents has multiplied by 15.

In addition, with food prices recording double-digit growth, more low-income people are struggling to make ends meet. The fight against poverty will not cease to be tough.

President Hu Jintao said Nov. 19: "By 2020, our general target is to ensure the nation's impoverished will no longer need to worry about food and clothing."

The Chinese Government's efforts to alleviate poverty are unprecedented in world history.

According to a white paper on poverty reduction efforts in the past decade unveiled by the Chinese Government Nov. 16, China's poverty-stricken rural population fell from 94.22 million at the end of 2000 to 26.88 million at the end of 2010, an equivalent to lifting the entire population of France out of poverty.

But we are not in a position to stop and congratulate ourselves. Two of my major concerns are the removal of inequality of all forms and the crackdown on corruption and excessive bureaucracy.

Poverty is largely the result of unequal access to education, employment, and medical care, etc. Essentially, it is a matter of wealth distribution, or "division of the cake," as the popular analogy goes. China has one of the largest income gaps in the world, with a Gini coefficient of 0.50 in 2009, even higher than the United States, at 0.46. These growing gaps are at the root of the social unrest that could threaten political stability.

Some argue that "the cake" should be made bigger before it can benefit more people while others maintain that fairer division should be done immediately so that everyone can enjoy the fruits of economic growth.

The key to a successful solution is a strong political will and good implementation.

Chongqing, one of China's four municipalities directly administrated by the Central Government, is exploring new ways to remove long-standing inequality facing the rural population. One of the bold measures is to allow farmers to have urban hukou (permanent residence permit). So far, over 1.45 million farmers have given up their rural hukou for urban residencies that give them access to employment opportunities, medical care and education enjoyed by city dwellers.

However, the public is often skeptical about the actual results of poverty reduction efforts. Why? there is ample evidence of misuse or embezzlement of the earmarked funds. In some poverty-stricken areas, the sharp contrast between glittering government office buildings and shabby farmhouses is grating. According to an official audit report issued in 2000, from 1997 to the first half of 1999, of the total of 48.8 billion yuan in help-the-poor capital, 43.3 billion yuan was misused or embezzled.

Public scrutiny and media supervision must play a role in the mission.

(The author is an English tutor and a freelance writer. He can be reached at jw368@163.com.)