President Jiang Zemin has called on governments at all levels to take urgent measures to lift 42 million people in rural areas out of poverty, warning that failure would 'jeopardise stability and national unity'.
'It is our urgent task to lift the 42 million poor people in rural areas out of poverty, including some 20 million handicapped people who cannot support their basic living standards,' Mr Jiang told a national conference.
'It will be a difficult task to fulfil our plan to bring 10 million poor people out of poverty every year over the next two years,' Xinhua quoted Mr Jiang as telling senior officials and provincial representatives.
'Poverty relief work has reached a crucial stage. We must mobilise the forces of the whole Communist Party and various sectors of society to take concrete steps to ensure we reach the strategic target by 2000.' Central authorities are concerned at complaints that local governments are not taking poverty relief seriously.
Mr Jiang called for special attention to be given to increasing incomes among ethnic minority groups as a way to maintain stability and national unity.
He said: 'We have many poor people living in places of strategic importance and border areas, mainly inhabited by ethnic groups. Failure to solve the food and clothing problem will jeopardise national unity, frontier stability and even national security.' Mr Jiang said priority would go to central and western provinces through investment projects.
