Inequality of rural residents'income in China since the targeted poverty alleviation strategy:New trends,causes,and policy implications

Poverty and income inequality are problems faced by many countries including China.Since the implementation of Targeted Poverty Alleviation(TPA),absolute poverty has been eradicated,meanwhile,Chinese rural residents'income and inequality have experienced unprecedented new dynamics,but still,very few studies have focused on them.Hence,we attempt to examine the new trends in Chinese farmers'income inequality and to understand its causes during this period.We observe that China's urban-rural income ratio has been shrinking and the urban-rural inequality has been decreasing from 2014 to 2021.The reduction in the Theil index indicates a decrease in the regional inequality of farmers'income as well,and the decline in inter-regional inequality among eight economic zones contributes about 80%to increased equality.These new trends are caused by the fact that,with the TPA,the incomes of rural residents especially that in destitute areas,grew faster than that of urban residents and farmers in prosperous areas.The higher share of non-agricultural industry and agricultural mechanization level have significant positive impact on regional equality of farmers'income,while urban-rural dual structure has significant negative inhibitory effects.The lowest farmers'income and the highest inequality in the Northwest,and the slowest growth in the Northeast deserve more attention in rural Revitalization.From these findings,we propose four policy implications that would be applied to improve Chinese farmers'income equality,govern relative poverty,and achieve common prosperity in the post-poverty era.

Poverty Alleviation Law Being Fundamental Condition for Ensuring Sustainable Development of Targeted Poverty Alleviation

Targeted poverty alleviation is a wise and far-reaching basic national policy formulated by the Chinese people under the leadership of the Communist Party of China. It is a strategic project and strategic goal for the Chinese people to completely shake off poverty and backwardness and move towards a prosperous and powerful country,as well as the historical mission of socialism to defeat capitalism. However,targeted poverty alleviation is a grand project involving the entire society. To ensure the ultimate realization of the goal of targeted poverty alleviation,only policies and programs are far from enough. Corresponding legal systems must also be established,which is the fundamental condition for targeted poverty alleviation and sustainable development.

Elite capture,the“follow-up checks”policy,and the targeted poverty alleviation program:Evidence from rural western China

Decentralized methods for targeting poverty are widely adopted in developing countries to improve the performance of various poverty alleviation programs.A common challenge for implementing successful decentralized targeting is the existence of elite capture.China has recently implemented a nationwide decentralized poverty targeting program,the targeted poverty alleviation(TPA)policy,to achieve the national goal of eliminating absolute poverty by the end of 2020.As the largest decentralized poverty targeting program in the world,TPA's successful implementation was believed to be threatened by elite capture in some earlier reports.Since 2015,a targeting correction mechanism,called"follow-up checks"policy,has been introduced.With the"follow-up checks"policy,the elites and other ineligible households who receive benefits under TPA were removed from the program.This paper investigates the elite capture phenomenon in TPA using village census data from a poverty-stricken county in 2017-two years after implementing the"follow-up checks"policy.We find no evidence of elite capture in TPA.The elites are unlikely to become beneficiaries or receive more benefits than non-elites.Our results contradict earlier findings that reported elite capture in TPA.We argue that the reason is the accountability emphasized by the central government in the"follow-up checks"policy.Our findings imply that having proper accountability is critical for improving targeting performance by global antipoverty initiatives.

The code of targeted poverty alleviation in China:A geography perspective

Geography is suitable for the study of sustainability from a transdisciplinary perspective,which takes the human-land relationship as the core research.As a key obstacle to rural sustainability,poverty is an external manifestation of the coupling maladjustment of elements in human-land territorial systems.As the world’s largest developing country,China eradicated extreme poverty in 2020 and made significant contributions to global poverty reduc-tion.Especially over the last eight years,China has implemented a targeted poverty alleviation(TPA)strategy and has continuously promoted theoretical,organizational and institutional innovations for poverty reduction.From the perspective of geography,this paper extracts the experiences of China’s TPA strategy,represented by the"5W2H"mode.The research concludes that:(1)Precise identification,as the foundation of TPA,aims to in-troduce a registration system to obtain records of all poor households and then answer the"5W"(what,where,why,who,when)issues of the geography of poverty.(2)Precise assistance is the key of TPA,which aims to solve the issue of"how to offer help and support".The barriers to escaping poverty can be accomplished through poli-cies and measures that focus on the diverse causes of poverty and considering different situations.(3)Accurate assessments are an essential means of TPA,relevant to solve"how to measure the end of poverty alleviation",and third-party evaluations play an important role in improving the accuracy of poverty alleviation.(4)The TPA mechanism lies in reconstructing the human-land-industry structures in the impoverished areal system.It is urgent to introduce China’s successful experience and typical modes of TPA for global human-earth system coordination and sustainable development and contribute to building a community of human destiny.

Research on Strategies for the Development of Selenium-enriched Tea in Ankang City of Shaanxi Province in the Context of Targeted Poverty Alleviation

As an important symbol of agricultural and sideline products in Ankang City,selenium-enriched tea affects the development of regional agricultural and sideline industries.In this paper,the development status and problems of the selenium-enriched tea products of Ankang were analyzed in terms of capital,technology,management and sales mode.This research is of positive significance to the development of selenium-enriched products and other agricultural and sideline products of health value,and plays a very important role in promoting the cultivation of village-level characteristic industries and the effective realization of targeted poverty alleviation.

Advances in Studies about Rural Financial Poverty Alleviation from the Perspective of Targeted Poverty Alleviation

With the objective of building a well-off society in an all-round way reaching the decisive stage,poverty alleviation enters the final stage,and rural financial poverty alleviation is increasingly becoming a hot topic of various circles of society. In order to accelerate the poverty alleviation and provide references and recommendations for further development of theory and practice of financial poverty alleviation,this paper made an overview of the organization system,operation mechanism and service products of rural financial poverty alleviation,elaborated the development path of financial poverty alleviation,and came up with recommendations for financial poverty alleviation.

On the Subjectivity Spirit of Farmers in Targeted Poverty Alleviation

Farmers’subjectivity spirit is the fundamental political and ethical spirit of targeted poverty alleviation.A standardized analysis based on the whole process of targeted poverty alleviation easily reveals that the subjectivity spirit of farmers can be summarized into the spirit of extensive equality of participation,the spirit of complete standardization of procedures,and the spirit of seeking benefits for people as a result.However,the current work on targeted poverty alleviation has confronted with various hidden worries about the farmers’subjectivity dilemma,which leads to the alienation of poverty alleviation work.The key way only to solve the problem is to cultivate the farmers’subjectivity culture and integrate it into the whole process of targeted poverty alleviation.

Minority Rural Tourism Development Planning Based on Targeted Poverty Alleviation: A Case Study of Chaikeng She Village in Jiaocheng District of Ningde City, Fujian Province, China

Developing tourism to help ethnic minorities' rural areas get rid of poverty and achieve prosperity is one path for targeted poverty alleviation in the ethnic rural regions with economic backwardness. Ethnic minorities' rural areas have benefited from the national poverty alleviation policies and subsidies, the economy has made certain progress and the ethic minorities' living standard has been improved to a certain extent. However, the economic and social development still lags behind overall. Research and practice have proved that the ethnic minorities' rural tourism development planning is a forward-looking option for minority villages to implement poverty alleviation, get rid of poverty and become better off and achieve sustainable development.

Present Situation,Problems and Countermeasures of Targeted Poverty Alleviation in Shaxi Township of Lichuan City

Poverty is a major factor restricting the economic and social development of all countries in the world.Eliminating poverty and improving people's livelihood have always been the long-cherished goals of mankind.This paper elaborated the targeted poverty alleviation work in Shaxi Township of Lichuan City mainly from three aspects:targeted identification,targeted assistance,and targeted exit.Besides,it analyzed the problems existing in the practice of targeted poverty alleviation in Shaxi Township,and put forward corresponding countermeasures and recommendations.

“The Source of Flowing Water”:How Targeted Poverty Alleviation Helps China’s Rural Poor Access Credit

Based on the China Household Finance Survey(CHFS)data of 2011-2017,this paper investigated the effects of China’s targeted poverty alleviation policy on rural credit access and amount using the“difference-in-differences”methodology.This study found that the targeted poverty alleviation policy increased the availability and amount of formal credit to poor households and reduced the proportion and amount of their borrowing through informal channels,and that the effects increased amid the policy’s implementation over time.This paper further found that the policy effects were more significant for China’s western regions,reflecting a positive role of targeted poverty alleviation in coordinating pro-poor finance across regions.Compared with poor counties,poor households from non-poor counties experienced a greater increase in their probability and amount of formal credit access,reflecting China’s approach of reducing regional poverty before targeting more precisely at individual poor households.This paper also uncovered that no significant“elite capture”effect had existed in the allocation of formal agricultural credit under targeted poverty alleviation,but extremely poor households experienced no significant change in their access to formal credit.While the targeted poverty alleviation policy has helped create a sound rural credit market,it should further improve access to formal finance for extremely poor households.

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

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 al eviation 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.

Satisfaction of targeted poverty alleviation policies and its influencing factors based on farmers' perspective:Questionnaire survey and research on 1720 farmers in Shaanxi Province of China

Based on the first-hand data of the household survey of targeted poverty alleviation policies,five dimensions were analyzed from the residential regions,the individual characteristics,the household income characteristics,the poverty status and the farmers' relevancy to poverty alleviation policies.Through descriptive statistics and correlation analysis,the satisfaction of targeted poverty alleviation policies and its influencing factors have been inspected.It is found that the farmers,on the whole,are satisfied with the targeted poverty alleviation policies.Their satisfaction for the implementation of local poverty alleviation policies is in a moderate high level,however at the same time they expect the policies to be improved.The impoverished farmers in southern Shaanxi have higher satisfaction towards the poverty alleviation policies.Those farmers' awareness,participation,and benefit are positively related to the level of satisfaction towards policies.The implementation of the poverty alleviation from the government is not only favorable for its people,but also the country.It can greatly enhance the recognition of the government's legitimacy and local government's credibility.To formulate and implement the targeted alleviation policies,the relationship between farmers,especially impoverished farmers,and such policies should be taken into consideration.The starting point and judging criteria of poverty alleviation job should be based on questions whether the farmers know,need,and have the willing to participate in and satisfy with the policies.Those farmers' right to know,participate,benefit and judge should be protected,and it will continuously promote the efficiency of implementing poverty alleviation.

The Content and Approaches of Human Resource Development in Impoverished Rural Regions in the Context of Targeted Poverty Alleviation

Poverty alleviation requires knowledge support. Targeted poverty alleviation, aiming to tackle rural poverty, needs to be supported by corresponding rural human resource development. Currently, China's human resource development in impoverished rural regions is faced with some major problems; a huge population distributed over a vast area, a lack of technological and cultural attainment, obsolete concepts, obsolete technical resources, and a significant gap between rural and urban education attainment. Rural human resource development, which is geared to targeted poverty alleviation, includes a variety of impoverished rural population-oriented trainings, such as intelligence development, skills training, modern professionalism &work attitude cultivation, physical & mental health education, as well as modern lifestyle & civilized manners guidance. Targeted poverty alleviation should be equipped with mechanisms of comprehensive layout & planning, coordinated advancement of development content and implementation, and a mechanism of organization & input. The approaches to the advancement of rural human resource development are enhancing basic education, building a system of vocational education and training, raising the social security level and improving the supporting mechanisms.

An Unconventional Model of Poverty Alleviation Directed by the Human Rights Approaches:based on an Observation of the Targeted Poverty Alleviation Policy and Its Practice in Weixian County of Hebei Province

Against the background that poverty alleviation is increasingly linked to the human rights-based approach in the international community,an issue arises concerning how to assess the targeted poverty alleviation strategy in China from a human rights perspective.The human rights-based approach emphasiz connecting poverty alleviation with those rights recognized in international human rights conventions,with a focus on the notion of multi-dimensional poverty and the empowerment and accountability in the process of poverty alleviation.The targeted poverty alleviation in China embodies the notion of capability poverty and adopts a multi-dimensional poverty alleviation strategy.The principles of empowerment and accountability have also been implemented to a large extent.All of the elements existing in the targeted poverty alleviation model such as super political will,government dominance,targeted implementation and unconventional mobilization are critical to ensuring the eventual success of poverty alleviation and human rights protection therein.Generally speaking,some deficiencies in respect of empowerment and rule of law in targeted poverty alleviation will not hinder the overall effectiveness of poverty alleviation.Nevertheless,it will be very helpful to reinforce the empowerment and rule of law in order to insure the fairness and sustainability in poverty alleviation,especially in the inevitable transition from an unconventional model ofp overty alleviation to a conventional one in future.

The Mode of Promoting Industrial Targeted Poverty Alleviation through Land Circulation in Western Mountainous Region of China——A Case Study of Luquan Yi and Miao Autonomous County in Yunnan Province

In the industrial targeted poverty alleviation,land circulation is a key process. Based on the national strategy of targeted poverty alleviation,this paper combined the industrial development of targeted poverty alleviation with land circulation. According to the field survey on the current situation of land circulation and promotion of the industrial poverty alleviation in the typical project area of Zhongping Village in Zhongping Town and Jiaowuying Village in Jiulong Town in Luquan Yi and Miao Autonomous County in Yunnan Province,located in the high mountain canyon area of Jinsha River in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River in the west of China. This paper summarized and analyzed the organization and operation mechanism,basic practices and main results of the land circulation and promotion of industrial poverty alleviation model in the typical project area of the county. It also summarized the innovation and successful experience of the model,and then came up with measures to further promote the implementation of the model,so as to provide necessary reference for the implementation of land circulation and industrial targeted poverty alleviation for the poverty-stricken counties in Yunnan Province and similar provinces( cities,regions).

Theoretical Research on Cultivated Land Ecological Compensation Based on Targeted Poverty Alleviation and Development

The effectiveness of targeted poverty alleviation is related to whether China can build a well-off society on schedule. Poverty alleviation is an arduous and urgent major issue in China,and the Party and the government have always been very concerned about and attached importance to poverty alleviation. At present,China’s poverty alleviation and development faces enormous pressures and challenges. Some poor areas actually shoulder the heavy responsibility of ecological protection in the process of national development. The contradiction between economic development and ecological protection is intensifying. Objectively,these poor areas have made outstanding contributions and great sacrifices for the country’s ecological construction. Therefore,it is necessary to balance the two goals of poverty reduction and building an ecological environment and explore a win-win path that is in line with the actual ecological protection and poverty alleviation and development in poverty-stricken areas. Ecological compensation for poverty alleviation is one of the basic contents of the " five-batch" project of China to implement poverty alleviation. Cultivated land is a very important ecosystem on land. On the basis of studying the ecological effects of cultivated land,the implementation of cultivated land ecological compensation has become an important part of the research on ecological poverty alleviation. On the one hand,ecological compensation for cultivated land can support or promote poverty alleviation and development. On the other hand,poverty alleviation and development policies also provide practical opportunities for cultivated land ecological compensation. Carrying out research on cultivated land ecological compensation and practicing this new direction and new poverty alleviation mode is of great significance to promote and improve the construction of ecological system for cultivated land,targeted poverty alleviation and development,and ecological protection of cultivated land. On the basis of combing the national ecological poverty alleviation strategy related policies and sorting out cultivated land ecological compensation theory research,this paper discusses the new mode of cultivated land ecological compensation to assist poverty alleviation and development,reveals the main problems in the current research and practice of cultivated land ecological compensation,and puts forward some suggestions for improving the ecological compensation for cultivated land to promote poverty alleviation and development.

Poverty Alleviation through Employment Promotion in Extreme Poverty-stricken Areas in Western China: A Case Study of Targeted Poverty Alleviation through Employment Promotion in Awang Town,Dongchuan District

Poverty alleviation through employment promotion is to promote the poor households to get rid of poverty through promoting employment to increase income. It is the most effective and direct way out of poverty. Dongchuan District, located in the alpine valley area of northeastern Yunnan, is a typical extreme poverty-stricken county in China. Under its jurisdiction, Awang Town is a mountainous township with a wide area of poverty and an extreme poverty. The incidence of poverty in 2015 reached 35.39%. In recent years, through the implementation of various policies to combat poverty, combined with the advantages as a traditional "hometown of migrant labor", focusing on employment- promoting poverty alleviation work, Awang Town has made certain achievements in poverty alleviation work. By the end of 2018, the poverty rate in the town fell to 0.57%, marking a major victory in the town s fight against poverty. Through field investigations, this article summarizes the main practices of Awang Town to carry out employment-promoting targeted poverty alleviation, analyzes the poverty alleviation achievements and successful experience of the town s employment-promoting targeted poverty alleviation work and discusses the promotion and application of this model so as to provide reference Yunnan Province and other poverty-stricken areas to carry out employment-promoting poverty alleviation.

Analysis on the Present Situation of Targeted Poverty Alleviation in Rural Areas under the Idea of "Party Building + County Sage or Worthy":A Case Study of Qianshan Village,Ganlu Town,Gongqingcheng City of Jiangxi Province

From the reform and opening-up policy until now,targeted poverty alleviation in rural areas has always been regarded as a major and arduous task in China,and it strives to achieve the goal of national poverty alleviation by 2020.To firmly win the strong war of overcoming poverty and realize new leap of targeted poverty alleviation in rural areas,Qianshan Village,Ganlu Town,Gongqingcheng City of Jiangxi Province establishes party building projects with rural characteristics by surrounding action of"overcoming poverty and attacking strong poverty"and taking"party building+county sage or worthy"as link.It uses county sage or worthy to drive development of rural industry,and establishes a complete poverty alleviation mechanism,thereby making poor households get rid of poverty,become rich,and embark on the road of well-off society.In this paper,opportunities and challenges in targeted poverty alleviation work of Qianshan Village are analyzed,and corresponding countermeasures and suggestions are proposed.

Land Use Regionalization in Poor Counties in Mountainous Areas Based on Targeted Poverty Alleviation

Land use regionalization is a strategic measure for the rational use,management and protection of land resources based on local conditions.Based on the needs of targeted poverty alleviation and rural revitalization strategy and the analysis on the natural and socioeconomic conditions,characteristics of land resources,and the current status of land use in Luquan County,corresponding regionalization indices were selected from four aspects:economic environment conditions,socioeconomic conditions,land resources and land use structure,and poverty alleviation and development level,a scientific and feasible index system for land use regionalization was constructed,and land use in Luquan County was regionalized by using systematic cluster analysis method.The results show that the 16 townships(towns)of Luquan County were divided into four land use regions,poverty alleviation region for development of new town and characteristic industries in the southwest(I),agricultural development and ecological poverty alleviation region in central mountainous area(II),poverty alleviation region for development of characteristic agriculture and tourism towns in eastern plateau mountainous area(III),and poverty alleviation region for development of characteristic industries and protection of land economy in the northern alpine valley area(IV).In addition,suggestions were put forward for the rational use of land in each region.

Work Effectiveness,Problems and Countermeasures of Third-Party Assessment Teams from Colleges and Universities for Targeted Poverty Alleviation

Conducting a third-party assessment on targeted poverty alleviation can effectively avoid the disadvantage that local government plays as both athlete(i.e.performer of poverty alleviation work)and referee(i.e.referee for poverty alleviation effect)in poverty alleviation to ensure the truth of poverty alleviation,and therefore,it is an important part of the work to win the battle against poverty.Since 2016,the thirdparty assessment teams from colleges and universities for targeted poverty alleviation have achieved good results and performance in the assessment on both the effectiveness of targeted poverty alleviation work and the exit of poor counties in China,and they have made due contributions to the cause of poverty alleviation.However,as a new thing,third-party assessment obviously has some problems,mainly including the following:subjective understanding on the long-term nature of rural poverty alleviation is insufficient,and there is a lack of long-term considerations and related mechanism for third-party assessment;affected by policies and institutions,most of the existing third-party assessment teams from colleges and universities have not regarded third-party assessment of targeted poverty alleviation as a cause,and they lack the motivation to actively study the assessment business;and the third-party assessment staff from colleges and universities for targeted poverty alleviation have low stability and high mobility,not conducive to the long-term construction of assessment teams.In order to establish long-term poverty alleviation and prevention mechanisms,these issues must be addressed squarely and relevant countermeasures need to be taken actively to effectively build a long-term mechanism for building third-party assessment teams from colleges and universities for targeted poverty alleviation.