China’s Long War on Poverty

This article provides a detailed analysis of China’s ongoing struggle against poverty. In addition to discussing the recently concluded targeted poverty alleviation program, in which the CPC-led government achieved its goal of ending extreme poverty, the author discusses the anti-poverty measures taken during the various phases of the Chinese Revolution, including land reform in the liberated areas in the 1930s and 1940s; the period of initial socialist construction from 1949; reform and opening up from 1978; and the more recent measures aimed at building common prosperity. He concludes that poverty alleviation, and more broadly the improvement of people’s living standards, has been foundational to the entire Chinese socialist project and constitutes a key theme of each of its stages.