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CAUTION: The following links and
accompanying text have been culled from the web to illuminate the situation
in China in the early years of the 21st Century. Some of
these links may lead to websites that present allegations that are
unsubstantiated, misleading or even false. No attempt has been
made to validate their authenticity or to verify their content. HOW TO USE THIS WEBPAGE Students If you are looking
for material to use in a term-paper, you are advised to scan the postings on this
page and others to see which aspects of poverty are of particular interest to
you. You might be interested in
exploring the relationship between distribution of labor and per-capita GDP,
for example. Perhaps your paper could
focus on life expectancy or infant mortality.
Other factors of interest might be unemployment, literacy, access to
basic services, etc. On the other
hand, you might choose to include some of the possible outgrowths of poverty
such as Human Trafficking,
Street Children,
or even Prostitution. There is a lot to the subject of
Poverty. Scan other countries as well
as this one. Draw comparisons between
activity in adjacent countries and/or regions. Meanwhile, check out some of the Term-Paper resources
that are available on-line. Teachers Check out some of
the Resources
for Teachers attached to this website. *** Extreme Weather *** According
to a report by NBC News, China has been experiencing extreme weather
conditions such as floods and droughts. The report states that the country
has been facing a season of extremes, with the country lurching between
stifling, unrelenting heat and heavy, monsoonal rainfall. The Chinese
Ministry of Emergency Management said that 147 people were dead or missing
because of natural disasters in July 2023. The report also mentions that most
of China’s farming regions are under the monsoon influence, making them
susceptible to meteorological disasters such as floods and drought. Another
report by Phys.org states that China is currently experiencing a cold snap
across a vast area of northern, eastern, and southeastern China. The brutal
cold follows a summer of record-smashing heat and devastating floods across
the country’s north. Experts warn that global warming caused by greenhouse
gas emissions makes extreme weather more likely – Microsoft BING Copilot *** ARCHIVES *** The World Factbook - China U.S. Central Intelligence Agency CIA www.cia.gov/library/publications/resources/the-world-factbook/geos/ch.html [accessed 30
November 2020] World Factbook
website has moved to ---> www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/countries/china/ [accessed 5 January 2021] Since
the late 1970s, China has moved from a closed, centrally planned system to a
more market-oriented one that plays a major global role. China has
implemented reforms in a gradualist fashion, resulting in efficiency gains
that have contributed to a more than tenfold increase in GDP since 1978.
Reforms began with the phaseout of collectivized
agriculture, and expanded to include the gradual liberalization of prices,
fiscal decentralization, increased autonomy for state enterprises, growth of
the private sector, development of stock markets and a modern banking system,
and opening to foreign trade and investment. China continues to pursue an
industrial policy, state support of key sectors, and a restrictive investment
regime. From 2013 to 2017, China had one of the fastest growing economies in
the world, averaging slightly more than 7% real growth per year. Measured on a purchasing power parity (PPP) basis that adjusts for
price differences, China in 2017 stood as the largest economy in the world,
surpassing the US in 2014 for the first time in modern history. China became
the world's largest exporter in 2010, and the
largest trading nation in 2013. Still, China's per capita income is below the
world average. GDP -
per capita (PPP): $18,200 (2018
est.) Labor
force - by occupation: agriculture:
27.7% industry:
28.8% services: 43.5% (2016 est.) Unemployment
rate: 3.64% (2019
est.) Population
below poverty line: 3.3% (2016
est.) Maternal
mortality rate: 29 deaths/100,000 live births (2017 est.) Infant
mortality rate: total: 11.4 deaths/1,000 live births Life
expectancy at birth: total population: 81.2 years Drinking
water source: improved: total: 92.8% of
population Physicians
density: 1.98 physicians/1,000 population (2017) Sanitation
facility access: improved: total: 90.7% of
population Electricity
access: electrification - total population: 100% (2020) The
Borgen Project - China borgenproject.org/category/china/ [accessed 24 January 2021] The Borgen Project works with U.S. leaders to utilize the
United States’ platform behind efforts toward improving living conditions for
the world’s poor. It is an innovative,
national campaign that is working to make poverty a focus of U.S. foreign
policy. It believes that leaders of
the most powerful nation on earth should be doing more to address global
poverty. From ending segregation to providing women with the right to vote,
nearly every wrong ever righted in history was achieved through advocacy. The
Borgen Project addresses the big picture, operating
at the political level advancing policies and programs that improve living
conditions for those living on less than $1 per day. ~
Stem Education Can Reduce Poverty In Rural China borgenproject.org/stem-education-can-reduce-poverty/ ~
China Gains Praise For Efforts To Solve Rural Poverty borgenproject.org/solve-rural-poverty/ ~
Addressing Elderly Poverty In China borgenproject.org/elderly-poverty-in-china/ ~
Drones In China Are Being Used To Fight Poverty borgenproject.org/drones-in-china/ ~
How Iprad-Sn Is Reducing Rural Poverty In China borgenproject.org/reducing-rural-poverty-in-china/ ~
Poverty & Oppression: The Uyghur Muslims In Xinjiang, China borgenproject.org/uyghur-muslims-in-xinjiang/ ~
‘Ice Boy’ Brings Hope Amid Child Poverty In China borgenproject.org/child-poverty-in-china/ ~
Poverty In Xinjiang, China borgenproject.org/poverty-in-xinjiang-china/ Jobs, Houses and Cows: China’s Costly Drive to Erase Extreme Poverty Keith Bradsher, New York Times, Jieyuan Village, 31 December 2020 www.nytimes.com/2020/12/31/world/asia/china-poverty-xi-jinping.html [accessed 31 December 2020] China has
spent heavily to help its poorest citizens, an approach that few developing
countries can afford and even Beijing may struggle to sustain. When
the Chinese government offered free cows to farmers in Jieyuan,
villagers in the remote mountain community were skeptical. They worried
officials would ask them to return the cattle later, along with any calves
they managed to raise. But the
farmers kept the cows, and the money they brought. Others received small
flocks of sheep. Government workers also paved a road into the town, built
new houses for the village’s poorest residents and repurposed an old school
as a community center. Jia Huanwen, a 58-year-old farmer in the
village in Gansu Province, was given a large cow three years ago that
produced two healthy calves. He sold the cow in April for $2,900, as much as
he earns in two years growing potatoes, wheat and corn on the terraced,
yellow clay hillsides nearby. Now he buys vegetables regularly for his
family’s table and medicine for an arthritic knee. The village
of Jieyuan is one of many successes of President Xi Jinping’s ambitious
pledge to eradicate abject rural poverty by the end of 2020. In just five
years, China says it has lifted from extreme poverty over 50 million farmers
left behind by breakneck economic growth in cities. Small village in Hubei beats poverty by growing pomelo Huangyue, China Global Television Network CGTN, 19 December 2020 [accessed 19 December 2020] A small
piece of fruit has changed the destiny of an entire village. That's the
case in central China's Hubei Province where locals have managed to beat
poverty by growing the humble pomelo. Villagers
once unable to even use smartphones are now able to sell pomelos by
live-streaming, an increasingly popular marketing method in China. As of
last year, almost every family in the village plants pomelos. And with an
annual output of 400,000 tons and a per capita annual income of 9,000 yuan
($1,200), the whole village has been lifted out of poverty. China has reached a major milestone in ending absolute poverty. But the Communist Party isn't celebrating yet Ben Westcott, CNN, 27 November 2020 [accessed 30 November 2020] China
was for decades one of the world's most impoverished countries and ending absolute
poverty has been an important policy goal for Xi. The Chinese leader pledged
to meet his target by the end of 2020, and establish a "moderately
prosperous society" ahead of the 100th anniversary of the founding of
the Chinese Communist Party in July next year. The
Chinese government defines absolute poverty as surviving on less than 2,300
yuan ($350) per year. Over the past 40 years, China has moved from a
primarily agrarian economy into one of the world's most rapidly urbanizing
countries. In its announcement,
Xinhua quoted an expert who said this marked the end of "the millenia-old issue of extreme poverty." Former
hunters chase poverty out of deep mountains Zhang Long, Editor, Xinhua News Agency, 14 December 2020 www.shine.cn/news/nation/2012141621/ [accessed 15 December 2020] Zhagana was listed as a provincial geological park
in 2006 and a national geological park in 2018. With government
support, roads were built linking the village to the outside world, and two-
and three-story Tibetan-style houses were built, attracting tourists to the
village to enjoy stunning mountain and forest sceneries and experience unique
Tibetan customs and foods. In
2019, the village received more than 1.38 million tourists, and the
comprehensive income from cultural tourism reached 800 million yuan (around
122 million US dollars). The annual per capita income of villagers has
increased from 5,100 yuan in 2013 to 11,000 yuan in 2019. The
World Bank in China www.worldbank.org/en/country/china/overview [accessed 18 April 2021] Since
China began to open up and reform its economy in 1978, GDP growth has
averaged almost 10 percent a year, and more than 800 million people have been
lifted out of poverty. There have also been significant improvements in
access to health, education, and other services over the same period. Looking
back a few years … Advameg, Inc., Encyclopedia of the Nations www.nationsencyclopedia.com/Asia-and-Oceania/China-ECONOMY.html [accessed 15 December 2020] Traditional
China was predominantly agricultural. Adhering to farming patterns developed
over a score of centuries, China could sustain a harsh level of
self-sufficiency, given surcease from natural calamities. For almost three decades
prior to 1949, the incessant ravages of civil disorder, foreign (principally
Japanese) invasion, and gross economic neglect virtually decimated China's
frail abilities to sustain itself. The first task of
the new PRC government thus was to restore the flow of natural resources to
prewar levels. By the early 1950s, the government had succeeded in halting
massive starvation. Almost all means of production and distribution were
brought under state control, and vast parcels of land were redistributed to
the peasantry. During 1953–57, China's first five-year plan stressed heavy
industry. Economic development was aided by imports of machinery and other
industrial equipment from the former USSR and East European countries. In
return, China exported agricultural produce to them. A major geological
prospecting drive resulted in the discovery of mineral deposits that provided
a major thrust toward industrialization. All
material used herein reproduced under the fair use exception of 17 USC § 107
for noncommercial, nonprofit, and educational use. PLEASE RESPECT
COPYRIGHTS OF COMPONENT ARTICLES. Cite this webpage as: Prof. Martin
Patt, "Poverty - China", http://gvnet.com/poverty/China.htm,
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