NewChina’s poverty relief ‘grading scheme’ will rate top officials based on how much they improve life for the poor

Senior officials will be judged on a new set of criteria to assess progress on poverty relief efforts.

The move – the country’s latest effort to lift people out of poverty by 2020 – comes months after President Xi Jinping described eliminating rural poverty as the toughest part of building a “moderately prosperous society”.

Despite three decades of stellar economic growth, some 71 million people still live in poverty on the mainland, earning less than 2,300 yuan (HK$2,750) a year. Most of them live in the central and western parts of China.

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The criteria, released by the general offices of the Communist Party’s Central Committee, will evaluate provinces’ efforts to identify, help and reduce their impoverished population. It will also check if poverty relief funds are being put to good use.

It will apply to 22 provinces in central and western China, and the State Council Leading Group Office of Poverty Alleviation and Development will conduct the assessments annually until 2020.

An independent party, scientific research agency or NGO will conduct inspections, surveys and studies in accordance with the criteria, according to a statement from the offices.

Officials who meet the poverty alleviation target will be rewarded, but those who fail to deliver satisfactory results risk punishment. The evaluation will serve as a major reference for assessing government officials’ performances, the statement said.