REFURBISHED VILLAGE: Guangnan County's Fapeng Village, in southwest China's Yunnan Province, shows a new face. Officials and local residents have been engaged over the last three years in alleviating poverty (CHEN HAINING)

A poverty assessment report released by the World Bank on April 8 showed that the proportion of impoverished Chinese fell from 65 percent of the population in 1981 to 4 percent in 2007, during which time more than half a billion people were hoisted above the poverty line.

The report, From Poor Areas to Poor People: China's Evolving Poverty Reduction Agenda, called the country's poverty reduction during the last 25 years "enviable."

It pointed out that rapid growth resulting from economic reforms was central to China's success, but also said that the task of poverty reduction is ongoing and has become more difficult in some respects. The report called for a broadening approach to diminishing the number of poor in the country.

"The report is timely and relevant, because China will soon draft its 2010-20 poverty reduction strategy," said Li Xiaoyun, Dean of the School of Humanities and Development of China Agricultural University. "The country should change its strategy according to its social and economic development."

Great achievements

China has made tremendous progress in diminishing poverty since the country adopted its policy of reform and opening up in 1978.

In the past 30 years there has been a substantial reduction in the number of China's rural poor population, said Fan Xiaojian, Director of the Office for Poverty Alleviation and Development under the State Council, which is drafting the 2010-20 poverty reduction strategy.

The number of people in poverty has been reduced from 250 million in 1978 to about 15 million today, he said.

Fang Cheng, a senior economist at the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, attributed the great achievements to China's sustained economic growth and a series of government development policies geared toward poverty alleviation.

The country made giant strides in the period from 1978 to 1984, during which the population living in poverty decreased by about 125 million.

The Chinese Government first announced a poverty line in 1985, saying those earning less than 200 yuan ($29.28) a year would be considered to be living in poverty. It has been raising the threshold ever since to conform to economic and social changes.

After 20 years of continued effort, those living in poverty decreased from 125 million in 1984 to 21.5 million in 2006.

During this period, China targeted the lack of food and clothing. The government confirmed 331 poverty-stricken counties in 1986; the number increased to 592 in 1994. By providing material aid to these counties, the Central Government gradually achieved its anti-poverty goal.

Beginning in 2006, China started a nine-year free compulsory education program in underdeveloped western regions. The policy has now gone nationwide.

In 2007, the government established a minimum living standard allowance program in rural areas and started to expand its health insurance coverage.

So far, the country's new Rural Cooperative Medical Care Program, under which residents benefit from a fund pool, has covered about 800 million people in the vast rural areas.

Under the program, a farmer participant pays 10 yuan ($1.46) annually while central and local governments jointly contribute 40 yuan ($5.86) per person into the fund.