More than 82 million people in China still live on less than about US$1 (HK$7.75) a day, a senior official said, despite a decades-long boom that made it the world’s second-largest economy.
China’s official poverty standard is an annual income of 2,300 yuan (HK$2,900), close to the long-used benchmark of $1 a day.
More than 82 million people were living on less than that at the end of last year, senior government development official Zheng Wenkai told reporters.
The World Bank’s own definition of poverty is $1.25 a day, and Zheng said China’s poor would would rise to more than 200 million if “international standards” were applied.
“The poverty-stricken population not only suffer from low income but also face various difficulties in getting drinking water, roads, electricity, education, medical care and loans,” he said at a press conference Tuesday.
Most of them live in areas prone to natural disasters or with inadequate infrastructure, and lifting them out of poverty is “a tough nut to crack”, added Zheng, vice director of the State Council Leading Group Office of Poverty Alleviation and Development.