The Role of Social Enterprises on the Poverty Alleviation in China: Review and a Case Study

Poverty is undoubtedly one of the most severe global problems for a long time and according to the United Nations, effectively eliminating poverty could be one of the most challenging issues for developing countries to achieve sustainable development in the long run. This paper would firstly give an overview of different poverty alleviation policies in different historical phases in China, with typical measurements followed. Then a brief introduction of social enterprises will be provided with various definitions from distinct policy systems and nations, followed by a case study of how social enterprises in Guizhou work to help the government with the poverty alleviation issue by providing regulation and operation benchmarks for the local entities. In the last section of the paper, policy suggestions would be provided for the Chinese government on how to support the development of social enterprises in China so that they could help more poor residents and regions to their best way.