Re–innovation on Thought and Mode of Poverty Alleviation in Rural Areas of Western China Under the Goal of Finishing Building a Moderately Prosperous Society in All Respects

Zhang Jianjun＊

Re–innovation on Thought and Mode of Poverty Alleviation in Rural Areas of Western China Under the Goal of Finishing Building a Moderately Prosperous Society in All Respects

Zhang Jianjun＊

Over 70 percent of China’s remaining impoverished people live in rural areas in the western region.With constraints such as relatively adverse natural conditions and extreme decentralization as well as a rapid decrease of marginal benefit of the current poverty alleviation mode, it is an inevitable choice to reform and innovate on the mode in a bid to realize the development goal of helping 55.75 million poor people under the present poverty line to shake off poverty by 2020.This paper makes a comparative analysis of the status quo of poverty alleviation work and the current poverty–relief policies in 12 provinces in western China from the perspective of supply and demand and proposes an innovative means for a new mode of poverty alleviation by incorporating poverty–relief resource management, improving rural human capital development, and marketizing poverty–relief project selection mechanisms.Interconnected development of new urbanization and industrialization will be its focus, reform of the household registration and land system will be its driving force, and the implementation of a supervision network and a strong focus on ecological environments will be its support.

poverty alleviation; thought; mode; innovation

1.The background of the issue

At the Fifth Plenary Session of the 18th Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, the goal of helping all poor people and impoverished counties nationwide shake off poverty by 2020 was set and included in the proposal of the Committee for the 13th Five–Year Plan for national economic and social development.Without significant and innovative poverty–relief measures,it will be hard to realize this urgent and arduous goal within five years, i.e.to help 55.75 million poor people in nearly 600 impoverished counties rise above the poverty level (The figures are from the 2015 Statistical Bulletin of National Economy and Social Development).Over the past ten years,with a variety of national poverty–relief policies and measures applied to western China, the ratio of the poor population in this region to the total rural population has dropped from 10.2 percent in 2000(poverty line: 865 yuan) to 2.8 percent (poverty line: 1,274 yuan) at the end of 2010 (New Progress in Development–oriented Poverty Reduction Program for Rural China, 2011).①China had two kinds of poverty lines before 2008.The first one was set out in 1986 as an absolute poverty threshold of 206 yuan, which was based on the cost of minimum daily nutritional requirements per person for 2,100 kilocalories, and then determined according to the consumption structure of people with the lowest income.Later, this threshold was adjusted with price rise to 785 yuan in 2007.The second one was defined in 2000 with 865 yuan as the low–income standard, and raised to 1,067 yuan at the end of 2007.The absolute poverty threshold and the low–income standard were unified in 2008, with 1,067 yuan as the poverty line.Since then, with changes in such factors as the consumer price index, the line was further increased to 1,196 yuan and 1,274 yuan in 2009 and 2010 respectively.In December, 2011, the line was lifted again to 2,300 yuan (equivalent to the international standard of 1 US dollar/person/day) in The Outline for Development–oriented Poverty Reduction for China’s Rural Areas (2011–2020).In addition, each province or region has a different poverty line, which in general is higher than the national poverty threshold.After the 17th CPC National Congress, China has officially adopted a low–income threshold to replace the previous absolute poverty line and gradually increased the threshold dramatically to a level in line with international standard (i.e., 1 US dollar/day), which is 92 percent higher than 2009 (see Table 1).Based on the poverty line of 2,300 yuan, the population of poor people in western China was 29.61 million in 2015, and the poverty incidence rate was 10.6 percent while the national average for the same period was 5.7 percent.The poor people mainly live in 11 contiguous poor areas with special difficulties (The State Council Leading Group Office of Poverty Alleviation and Development, 2015).Through a variety of poverty alleviation measures as well as great efforts over the past 30 years, the remaining poor people in western China are mostly the destitute whose poverty condition cannot be alleviated by conventional means so that the poverty–relief task is extremely difficult.The issue of rural poverty in western China not only hinders the realization of the goal of finishing building a moderately prosperous society in all respects, but also affects overall stability of the country and geopolitical security of the area.Under such context, how to innovate further and effectively on poverty–relief and how to improve the quality and benefit have become a significant challenge to the current poverty–relief work.

2.Status quo of poverty alleviation work in rural areas of western China

According to the 2015 statistics of the State Council Leading Group Office of Poverty Alleviation and Development, the contiguous poor areas with special difficulties in western China cover 498 counties, accounting for 73.2 percent of the country’s total contiguous poor areas (680 counties) (The State Council Leading Group Office of Poverty Alleviation and Development,2015).In 2015, excluding 74 counties in the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR), there were 375 national–level impoverished counties in western China, accounting for 63.3 percent of the country’s total.As the 74 counties in TAR were considered as a whole and included into the national poverty–relief scope as the only contiguous poor area with special difficulties at the provincial level,the number of impoverished counties in the six provinces in southwestern China was approximately 61 percent of the total of western China.Among others, the numbers of impoverished counties in TAR, Yunnan, Guizhou, Shaanxi and Gansu were noticeably higher than other provinces in western China, each accounting for over 10 percent of the total number of western China, with an average number of 58 counties in each province or region,which is of major concern in the development–oriented poverty relief work for western China (See Table 1).In terms of poor population, there were 19.47 million in the southwestern region and 10.14 million in the northwestern region by the end of 2015.Such population of the former was over 1.9 times that of the latter.The poverty incidence rate of western China was 10.6 percent on average, 4.9 percent higher than the national average which was 5.7 percent.Rural poverty in western China is characterized by a large number of poor population and high levels of poor conditions.

With 74 impoverished counties, TAR is included in the national poverty–relief scope as the only contiguous poor area with special difficulties at the provincial level.The total of western China as shown in the above table includes the data of the 74 impoverished counties of TAR.The above data of 2015 mainly comes from 2015 statistical bulletins of national economy and social development of each province or region concerned, reports on the work of provincial governments during the 2016 sessions of the National People’s Congress and the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, as well as statistics released by local major media outlets, together with collection and calculation efforts of the author.

Table 1 Poverty status of regions in western China in 2015

The current poverty–relief work for western China now focuses on the 11 contiguous poor areas with special difficulties (covering 498 impoverished counties) and another 63 national–level impoverished counties.Those areas or counties are all subject to similar, common situations: located in high mountains and deep valleys, bad natural conditions, adverse living environments, fragile ecological environment,frequent natural disasters, inaccessible locations,inadequate or uneven distribution of water resources.

Statistics of the State Council Leading Group Office of Poverty Alleviation and Development show that in 2015, China’s GDP per capita was 49,228.7 yuan, its urbanization rate was 56.1 percent, rural per capita net income was 11,422 yuan, and rural per capita consumption expenditure was 9,223 yuan.In the same year, however, the GDP per capita of western China was 41,891.7 yuan, 7,337 yuan lower than the national average.Its urbanization rate was 48.1 percent, 8 percent lower than the national average.The rates of the southwestern and northwestern regions were 44.4 percent and 51.7 percent respectively.Rural per capita net income of western China was 8,685.9 yuan, 2,736.1 yuan less than the national average.That amounts of the southwestern and northwestern regions were 8,529 yuan and 8,842.8 yuan respectively.Rural per capita consumption expenditure of western China was 8,383 yuan, 840 yuan lower than the national average.Generally speaking, the gap between western China and the national average was huge, demonstrating a high level of poverty in some parts of the region.In addition, it can be seen from Table 2 that although the gap between the overall index of the northwestern region and the national average was small, the indexes of Gansu Province were notably lower than other provinces in this region, and remarkably lower than the national average.The province has a high degree of poverty, developing at the same level as Guizhou and Yunnan in the southwestern region.

3.Major national policies and measures for poverty alleviation in western China and corresponding results in recent years

3.1 Comparative analysis on supply and demand of poverty alleviation

Current policies and measures for poverty alleviation of rural areas in western region generally fall into the following four types: (1)Special–purpose poverty–relief: This is led by the central government through special planning and funds to pool resources for development and poverty alleviation.Governments at each level are responsible for taking specific measures including the establishment of special funds for poverty alleviation, provisions of microfinance, relocation,provisions of jobs instead of outright grants, and industry–based poverty–relief.(2) Sector–based poverty–relief: This emphasizes the strength of each sector of the country and mainly includes targeted poverty alleviation by government agencies,institutions, central state–owned enterprises,academic institutions, and public organizations as well as poverty–relief for infrastructure construction.(3) Nongovernmental based poverty–relief: This draws on all walks of life and brings a wide range of efforts to participate in poverty alleviation, with such measures as collaborated poverty–relief by the eastern and western regions, designated poverty–relief, and in–situ poverty–relief by the military.(4)Poverty–relief based on international cooperation:This mainly involves cooperation with international organizations such as the World Bank, the United Nations Development Program, and the World Food Program, as well as foreign governments(New Progress in Development–oriented Poverty Reduction Program for Rural China, 2011; Outline for Development–oriented Poverty Reduction for China’s Rural Areas 2011–2020, 2012).The above four types of policies and measures offer aid in human resource training and development, funding,infrastructure construction and material resources as well as poverty–relief means including rural medical insurance and social security.The demands for shaking off poverty in rural destitute areas in western China are mainly reflected in needs for production, living, education, medical treatment and social security.The current development–oriented poverty reduction program is developed on the premise that people live in a relatively concentrated manner and have convenient transportation,adequate and handy communication while the destitute areas in western China are characterized by scattered residences, inaccessibility to transportation and information, and adverse natural conditions.

Through a comparative analysis on current supply and demand for poverty alleviation, it was found that the differences between supply and demand mainly lie in the following aspects; poor infrastructure, transport facilities in particular, lack of a leading industry, separate supply and demand due to highly scattered residences in rural areas,leading to difficulties in effective synergy.

3.2 Results of poverty alleviation

According to an article written by Zhang Weimin, deputy director–general of the National Bureau of Statistics in October 2015, per capita income of rural residents in poor areas increased to 6,221 yuan in 2014 from 4,732 yuan in 2012, with a nominal growth rate of 14.7 percent annually, 2.9 percentage points higher than the national average.Rural per capita consumption expenditure in poor areas rose from 3,887 yuan in 2012 to 5,185 yuan in 2014, with a nominal growth rate of 15.5 percent annually, 3.4 percentage points higher than the national average.From 2012 to 2014, rural per capita consumption expenditure in poor areas saw a growth rate that was 0.8 percentage points higher than that of rural per capita income.

In the last decade, China has made great achievements in poverty alleviation, with the ratio of the rural poor population to the total rural population dropping to 5.7 percent in 2015 from 10.2 percent in 2000.The rural poor population in western China decreased significantly.Based on the poverty line of 2,300 yuan, the poverty incidence rate of the western region declined from 23.8 percent in 2010 to 10.6 percent in 2015 and the poor population in this region also decreased from 165.66 million in 2010 to 29.61 million in 2015.Living conditions of farmers in poor areas of this region have been continuously improved.By the end of 2014, 60.9 percent of national–level impoverished counties had tap water facilities or deep wells available.Natural villages that were connected to roads, power grids and landline telephone networks accounted for 88.1 percent, 98 percent and 92.9 percent respectively of the total natural villages of the country.Per capita rural housing area was 24.9 square meters.The school–age children enrollment rate reached 97.7 percent.Of all the rural households, 93.3 percent participated in the “new rural cooperative medical insurance system” (the State Council Leading Group Office of Poverty Alleviation and Development,2015).Taking 2006 as a baseline, the per capita GDP growth rate, the urbanization rate and the per capita net income of farmers in the western region rose significantly in 2015 (see Table 2).

The number of remaining poor people is still huge in western China and the poverty incidence rate is yet much higher than the national average(See Fig.1), showing a high degree of poverty and the difficulty of the task.It can be seen from Fig.2 (a change curve of poor population in western China)that in recent years, the curve has gradually become gentle, showing fully the increasing difficulty for the remaining poor people to shake off poverty,the rapid declining of marginal benefit of poverty reduction, and severe challenges to the currentdevelopment–oriented poverty alleviation practices,policies and measures.In addition, some of the poor people living in poverty–stricken areas are affected by geographical environments so their living is quite vulnerable and very likely to return to poverty.It is hard to realize fundamental changes in social,economic and cultural conditions in rural poverty–stricken areas in western China.

Table 2 Changes in Economic Development and Farmers’ Life in Western China from 2006 to 2015

Fig.1 Comparison between poverty incidence rates of China and its western region from 2010 to 2015

Fig.2 Comparison between population of China and its western region from 2010 to 2015

4.Major problems of the current poverty alleviation mode for western China

4.1 Two rigid constraints of poverty alleviation for western China

After years of poverty alleviation and development practice, the number of poor population in the western region has been greatly reduced, and many successful experiences and measures have been accumulated.However, by the end of 2015, there were still 29.61 million poor people in the western regions, and a vast majority of them lived in areas with relatively adverse natural environments and in a decentralized way, leading to limited effectiveness of the current poverty alleviation methods, policies and measures.

(1) Relatively harsh natural environments weaken or even diminish the effect of poverty alleviation to a large extent.At present, the physical geographical environment of the 11 impoverished areas that lie in contiguous stretches in western China is generally characterized by the following: ① Their ecological environment is very vulnerable and would be difficult to restore once damaged; ② Their locations are landlocked and relatively enclosed,with poor infrastructure and inaccessibility to traffic; ③ They are subject to adverse natural conditions and frequent disasters; ④ There is a great shortage of water resources or difficulty in getting water supplied (Qu Wei et al., 2012).Specifically,the poverty–stricken counties in the southwest are basically located in karst areas, with less arable land,poor soil property, serious water loss and soil erosion and frequent natural disasters.The northwest part is subject to severe land desertification and poor land quality due to “excess reclamation, logging and grazing” for a long time and on a large scale.The Qinghai–Tibet region is dry and cold, and the production conditions are very limited.The above natural conditions make it too difficult to implement many poverty alleviation projects or to achieve the desired effects.For example, poverty alleviation measures such as “one village featuring one quality product” or “comprehensive poverty alleviation in the entire village” in the industry–based poverty alleviation program basically centers on “featured farming or breeding industry.” Restrained by natural conditions, however, the marginal benefit of poverty alleviation decreases rapidly while the cost rises fast.

(2) The overly decentralized distribution of the poor population makes it difficult for the current poverty alleviation measures to become effective.At present, the poverty–stricken areas in the western regions are generally subject to uneconomical spatial patterns of regional economy and disrupted relations between poverty alleviation projects and needs, mainly manifested in the following aspects:① The distribution of the poor population features“generally scattered and concentrated in small groups” (Qu Wei et al., 2012), poor relevance, and diseconomies of internal and external scales within a human settlement (Zhang Jianjun, 2010).② The vast majority of the poor settlements are small and sparsely populated.There is little chance for external transactions and the trading cost is high.All those factors weaken and even sever the link between supply and demand for poverty alleviation.③ Living in a decentralized way and in remote areas, the poor people can hardly receive technical training, and many grass–roots vocational and technical training programs are basically superficial.④ The unavailability of infrastructure facilities,such as water supply, electricity and road networks has a strong impact on poverty alleviation projects and also increases the cost so many measures beneficial to farmers cannot be implemented to each rural household.⑤ Many of the industry–based poverty alleviation projects cannot be carried out or implemented because of the excessive decentralization of rural households.

To sum up, the diseconomy of geographical areas and relatively harsh natural environments are the two major rigid constraints confronting the development–oriented rural poverty alleviation program for western China.Under the current historical conditions, an inevitable choice is to shift the thought actively to find a new means for poverty alleviation and development.

4.2 Major problems of the current poverty alleviation programs

For highly poverty–stricken people in remote areas, the current poverty alleviation programs and measures are insufficient to help them shake off poverty due to the following reasons.

(1) The marginal benefits of poverty alleviation projects are diminishing and the methods of some projects are inappropriate.With the gradual reduction of the absolute poor population and the application of the new poverty line, it is an indisputable fact that the marginal benefits of the existing poverty alleviation projects are declining rapidly and the poverty alleviation work is becoming more and more difficult.In addition, the methods of some projects are inappropriate in that relief in kind may make the poor poorer with poverty–relief measures in sector or nongovernmental based poverty alleviation programs.Organizations with targeted poverty alleviation tasks or many poverty–relief organizations in collaborated poverty–relief by the eastern and western regions tend to“simplify” the poverty alleviation work.They often offer poverty–relief in kind or cash.Such kind of assistance can generate a notable effect and rapidly improve the production and living standard of the target.However, it may make some of the recipients become dependent and reduce their initiative to shake off poverty by themselves.With such a dependent mentality, those people may become poorer with poverty alleviation measures (Lai Jingsheng, 2008).The field survey carried out by this research group in northern Shaanxi Province in 2015 also confirmed this point.

(2) Defining the target scope covered by poverty alleviation lacks dynamic management, and poverty alleviation and development projects are not well targeted, severely weakening the effect of poverty alleviation.For instance, it was found in the field survey that some counties have been out of poverty for many years, but they have still been supported by financial poverty alleviation funds in the name of“poor ones”, while some other counties or townships which really went back to poverty are not aided.

(3) Industry–based poverty alleviation often cannot achieve the desired results.In the industry–based poverty alleviation mode, local leading enterprises that are supported for development–oriented poverty alleviation often have significantly different interests and goals from those of poor rural households.Therefore, the mechanism for linking their interests would easily deviate from the original poverty alleviation objectives and it would then be difficult to achieve the purpose of poverty alleviation.

(4) Poverty alleviation projects are chosen arbitrarily due to the absence of a selection mechanism.As poverty alleviation based on agricultural science and technology needs to be in line with local agricultural industrial restructuring,farmers are required to take market demand as the guideline.However, in practice, many policymakers often lack overall consideration and make arbitrary decisions without scientific case studies and regardless of market demand and the actual production situation of farmers, resulting in many failures and the worsening of the poverty issue.Take the field survey I made in a poor village in Gansu Province as an example.Poverty alleviation projects changed from one to another like a “merry–go–round.” The planned poverty alleviation projects shifted from the planting of pear trees, to apple trees and then to tobacco within only five years.All of them were enforced with administrative orders but technical training, management and marketing failed to be carried out so that farmers were not only unable to make money from those projects, but also spent a lot, and the last flue–cured tobacco project also ended up with nothing.

(5) The poverty alleviation resource management mechanism is unreasonable and the use of funds is inefficient as shown by the following aspects: The operational details of poverty alleviation funds are not transparent.Without any information disclosure about the funds, the public hardly know how the funds were used and social supervision cannot follow up, resulting in quite serious embezzlement and misappropriation of the funds.Therefore, it is difficult to obtain or make use of poverty alleviation funds fully and efficiently.And this situation is quite common in developing countries (Ron Haskins,2001; Chantal Blouin et al., 2012).According to the xinhuanet, from January to November of 2012,the Chinese prosecutorial organs investigated and handled 9,612 corruption and bribery criminal cases involving 14,517 people and a total amount of over 2.77 billion yuan in agriculture related fields which aimed to benefit farmers.A typical case is as follows: On July 31, 2013, 10 poverty alleviation officials were sentenced for embezzlement of 8.3 million yuan of poverty alleviation funds; they were poverty alleviation office chiefs or section chiefs at the city or county/district/banner level of Bayannur City of Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region (Tang Ji et al., 2013).Embezzlement and misappropriation of poverty alleviation funds vary from place to place in terms of means.Funds are embezzled by making false contracts or rural household rosters,false reports of the numbers of trainees and days,overstatement of bills of quantities and other methods.In some places, the funds were used for office or hospitality expenses, and in other places,corruption and illegal or unauthorized division of funds were involved.

(6) The poor population may damage the ecological environment severely due to lack of living fuels.At present, about half of the rural poor population living in poverty–stricken areas in western China still rely mainly on cutting down trees and branches as their main fuels.Over the years, excessive logging has severely damaged the vulnerable local ecology, greatly reduced the efficiency of projects for returning farmland to forest or grassland, and exacerbated water loss and soil erosion while none of the national poverty alleviation policies or measures is targeted or effectively against this issue.

(7) There are many improper behaviors in the design, management and implementation of the current poverty alleviation mode, greatly reducing the efficiency and effectiveness of poverty alleviation work.The behaviors are mainly concerned with economic interests between governments of different levels, between poverty alleviation providers and recipients in targeted poverty alleviation, or between provinces providing or receiving poverty alleviation aids in collaborated poverty relief by the eastern and western regions (Zhang Jianjun et al., 2004).Many local governments want desperately to squeeze into the “poverty scope,” which means that they can have free access to more national funds or resources.A typical example is reflected in the news report in 2012 that Xinshao, a county in Hunan Province, “felt proud of being a poor county.”

5.A new and long–acting mode for poverty alleviation in western China

In view of the dilemma, problems and new situations faced by the current poverty alleviation and development, the marginal benefit of the original poverty alleviation program is rapidly decreasing.The program is now largely incompatible with the needs of the new situation and development while the remaining poor people have a higher degree of poverty and are mainly located in mountainous areas with harsh natural conditions and live in a scattered way.It is thus inevitable to reform and innovate on the current poverty alleviation program.Current statistics and research results show that the incidence rate of rural poverty decreases with the increase of the urbanization rate with every one percent rise of the urbanization rate accompanied by 2.8 percent drop of the incidence rate of rural poverty.Rural income inequality saw a gentle “inverted U”change with the increases of the urbanization level(Li Meng et al., 2014).The poverty alleviation mode should be transformed from being development–oriented to growth–oriented, which will provide more opportunities for the poor (Wei Houkai et al.,2009), and focus on improving the ability of the poor people to shake off poverty in future poverty alleviation work (Zhou Zhonggao, 2014).

(1) The main idea of the new, long lasting poverty alleviation model is based on the interconnected development of new urbanization and industrialization, and supported by the urbanization of the poor population as the driving force, by ecological construction as the basic environment, by a poor population information database and a supervision network system as the information source to form a long–acting poverty alleviation program for poverty stricken areas in western China (see Fig.3).Funds are to be pooled for input into the poverty stricken areas to accelerate interconnected development of new urbanization and industrialization to provide the poor with free technical training, employment support, housing subsidies and concessions, and interest–free loans for start–ups as well as financial subsidies and other measures to promote the poor to move to towns or cities and the tertiary industry and to accelerate the movement and migration of people in poor areas to the “urban system” of the region.In this way, with new industrialization as the carrier, a new industry–based poverty alleviation system is to be established on the basis of the existing system of “industrial park—industrial development zone” to support and vigorously develop modern service industries to create more job opportunities for the poor.

(2) The development–oriented poverty alleviation work for western China should be closely linked with the promotion of “interconnected development of new urbanization and industrialization” to facilitate the majority of the population and production activities in poverty stricken areas in western China to move to and gather in the system of “small town — center town — city.” With new urbanization as the carrier and provisions for human resources and capital support for the development of new industrialization, the development of the latter will in turn promote urbanization to develop faster and better (Zhang Jianjun, 2008).During the interconnected development of new urbanization and industrialization, the poor people will be offered more growth opportunities.Their comprehensive skills and qualities will be enhanced.So will their ability to shake off poverty.In this way, the vicious circle of “the poor have more children and having more children will make them poorer” can be broken and this is the key to solving the problem of poverty in the western region.In the meantime, as the political and economic centers in certain areas,towns have relative concentrations of materials,science and technology, information, human resources and other factors of production and are therefore key carriers to expand domestic demand and transfer the poor population to the secondary and tertiary industries.Efforts should be made to help the poor areas take a new “three–in–one” approach by integrating industrial parks, market building and urban development, and this approach is in line with the law of economic development of the western region.Therefore, the principle of using industries to develop towns should be adhered to with the goal of achieving positive connections between urbanization and new industrialization.With new urbanization supported by modern high–tech and new industries,the problem of poverty in western China can be solved based on interconnected development between new urbanization and industrialization.

(3) The reform of the household registration system and land circulation system is to be carried out vigorously.The rural household registration system and land circulation system in western China should be reformed and improved so that the two systems can match with new urbanization and promote the poor population in this region to migrate and become employed by the following means:① To gradually lift the household registration restriction and allow the labor force to move freely and migrate according to market demand; especially to provide cities or towns at or below the second tier with the best possible conditions to help the floating population settle down.② To speed up the process of “granting property rights” of land in poverty–stricken areas by taking the confirmation of land rights as the core, allowing farmers to participate in new urbanization development with land shares,establishing the market of rural land circulation,accelerating the circulation of land and promoting appropriately large–scale operations to take the path of agricultural industrialization and modern management.

Fig.3 Schematic diagram of a long acting poverty relief mechanism based on interconnected development between new urbanization and industrialization of poor areas in western China

(4) A market–oriented selection mechanism for poverty alleviation industry projects is to be established by the following means: ① To remove the misunderstanding that project selection is in the charge of the government and to give full play to the main functions of poor rural households and leading enterprises relevant to poverty alleviation; to establish a project selection mechanism that relies on market systems and complies with market choices and is led by the enterprise concerned, supervised by the government through monitoring and guaranteeing, and is beneficial to rural households.② To improve the industry based poverty alleviation mechanisms and strengthen industrial support.Development planning and demonstration of poverty alleviation industries in poverty–stricken areas should be enhanced.Attention should be paid to building regional industrial parks and zones for poverty alleviation.Cluster competitiveness of poverty alleviation industries should be improved according to the development pattern of “small projects and large clusters.”

(5) Poverty relief resource management mechanism should be integrated.Under the principle of “being simplified, transparent and easy to regulate,” poverty alleviation resources, especially the use of funds should be integrated to improve the effectiveness of poverty alleviation.It is necessary to establish an interdepartmental joint meeting system to maximize the use of poverty alleviation resources through simplifying links, integrating the same or similar functions among different departments, coordinating projects, and breaking through the fragmented management interests of the departments.

(6) The human capital development mechanism should be improved for poverty stricken areas in western China.Education investment in the western poverty–stricken areas should be further increased to protect the equal rights of the poor.It is suggested to implement compulsory education for senior high school in those areas and provide tuition relief or subsidy to university students from those areas.In addition, vocational and technical education and training should be strengthened and the corresponding labor training and employment service systems should be improved to comprehensively enhance the overall qualities of the poor.

(7) Ecological construction in the western poverty–stricken areas should be further strengthened.A good ecological environment is the basis for the success of poverty alleviation and development.Poverty alleviation work in western China should be combined with ecological construction and environmental protection.Resource development modes featuring shallow, flat and quantity–oriented exploitation should be firmly curbed in the western poverty–stricken areas.The selection of projects,especially industry based poverty alleviation projects,must be combined with ecological and environmental protection engineering such as returning farmland to forest or grassland.Modern high–tech should be introduced to change the production mode.Moreover,the industrial structure should be vigorously adjusted to develop green and low–carbon industries.The level and quality of modern service industries should be greatly improved to create opportunities and conditions for the employment of more poor people(Caridad Arau jo, 2004).

(8) A poverty alleviation information database and regulatory network system for western China should be established.① The poverty alleviation funds are used inefficiently nowadays with serious issues such as inappropriate or illegal application.The key to enhancing the efficiency is to establish a sound mechanism for poverty alleviation information collection, updating, statistics and publication along with dynamic supervision by the authorities as well as overall surveillance by the society and media outlets.② A social and media supervision mechanism should be established and introduced to disclose the poverty line, poverty alleviation project planning, design, demonstration and implementation as much as possible to improve the operability and impartiality of poverty alleviation work.

6.Conclusion

The development–oriented poverty alleviation work is entering a stage with declining marginal benefits while the remaining poor people live in a scattered way and are subject to adverse natural environments.In view of the development status,the current poverty alleviation mode must be reformed and innovated to establish a new and long acting mode with interconnected development of new urbanization and industrialization at the core.Based on strengthening technical and vocational training, production and population in poor areas in western China should be encouraged to move to the urban system in their region.An approach of interconnected development of new urbanization and industrialization should be taken to meet strategic needs of the current development status and future poverty relief and development of western China.

(Translator: Wen Yi; Editor: Jia Fengrong)

This paper has been translated and reprinted with the permission of Issues in Agricultural Economy,No.4, 2017.

Caridad Araujo.(2004).Can non–agricultural employment reduce rural poverty? Evidence from Mexico.Cuadernos de Economía,41(124),383─399.

Chantal Blouin, Dorotea Lopez Giral & Aniket Bhushan.(2012).Reducing poverty and inequality in Latin America: What role for Canada? International Journal, 67(3), 623─637.

Lai Jingsheng.(2008).Features of rural poverty in western China and poverty alleviation measures in the new era.Journal of Chongqing Technology and Business University, (3), 59─66.

Li Meng & Yang Long.(2014).An empirical study on the relation between rural poverty, income inequality and urbanization.Statistics &Information Forum, (6), 68─73.

Qu Wei, Tu Qin, Niu Shuwen & Hu Miao.(2012).Poverty effect test of physical–geographical environment — Empirical analysis of the impact of physiographic condition on rural poverty.Chinese Rural Economy, (2), 21 ─34.

Ron Haskins.(2001).Giving is not enough: Work and work supports are reducing poverty.The Brookings Review, 19 ( 3 ), 12─15.

Tang Ji & Zhang Lina.(2013, July).Ten officials “fell” by poverty–relief funds.http://news.xinhuanet.com/politics/2013–07/30/c_116744124.htm

The National Bureau of Statistics of China.(2007).China statistical yearbook 2007.Beijing: China Statistics Press.

The National Bureau of Statistics of China.(2013).China statistical yearbook 2013.Beijing: China Statistics Press.

The National Bureau of Statistics of China.(2015).China statistical yearbook 2015.Beijing: China Statistics Press.

The State Council Leading Group Off i ce of Poverty Alleviation and Development (2015) http://www.cpad.gov.cn/

The State Council of China.(2011).New Progress in Development–oriented Poverty Reduction Program for Rural China (White Paper).

The State Council of China.(2012).Outline for development–oriented poverty reduction for China’s rural areas (2011─2020)

Wei Houkai & Wu Xiaoxia.(2009).China’s poverty alleviation policies: evaluation and prospects.The Journal of Shanghai Administration Institute, (2), 56─68.

Zhang Jianjun & Li Guoping.(2004).Study on innovation and strategy of poverty–relief mode for destitute areas in western China.Studies in Science of Science, (12), 594─599.

Zhang Jianjun.(2008).A study on interconnected development mode of rural urbanization and new industrialization.Population &Economics, (6), 1─6.

Zhang Jianjun.(2010).The development path of western China — A study on development mode: Gradation growth poles network.Beijing: Science Press.

Zhou Zhonggao & Bai Ping.(2014).The trends of social poverty and poverty reduction strategies.Journal of Xiangtan University(Philosophy and Social Sciences), (1), 81─84.

*Zhang Jianjun, associate professor, Xidian University.

*Foundation item: National Social Science Foundation Project“Research on Innovation of Financial Support Mode for New Urbanization Development”(No.15XJL006); Shaanxi Provincial Social Science Foundation Project“Research on Shaanxi’s Efforts to Promote New Urbanization Development”(No.2016ZB020); Xi'an Soft Science Project“Xi'an’s Approach and Measures for Building a Central Asia Industrial Park on the New Silk Road”(No.: SF1501 (2)).