ABSTRACT
Poverty has a long history in China, but had been mainly associated with rural areas until very recently. In 1978 there were 250 million rural people living in poverty. Early success in economic reform had brought about a significant reduction in rural poverty and, by 1993, those living in poverty in the countryside had declined to about 80 million. Fast economic growth during the 1990s brought further reductions in rural poverty. By 2002 the official figure for rural people living in poverty had reduced to 28 million. (It was widely acknowledged that China had been very successful in reducing rural poverty. The number of people in poverty, however, is disputable. The official figures quoted here are based on the official poverty line of 625 yuan per person per year. This is much lower than the commonly used US$1 a day. Rural income data was also not very reliable and may include necessary investment for the following year. Using an adjusted poverty line of 1,200 yuan per person per year, Wu (2003), estimated that about 150 million rural people might still live in poverty in mid-2003.) As discussed in previous chapters, living standards among ordinary
urban residents was more or less equal before economic reform. After 25 years of reform, there was diversification of the urban population and income distribution. While many urban residents became richer, some at the bottom of the urban society had become very poor. Though urban poverty is a new phenomenon in China, it has become an important policy concern over the last few years. At the National People Congress meeting held in March 2003, many delegates raised the issue of urban poverty. Apart from rural poor, it was reported that there were about 100 million poor rural migrants, 20 million poor suburban farmers who lost their land as a result of urban expansion, and 20 million original urban residents who became poor as a result of industrial reorganisation. This chapter will review the increasing gap between the rich and the poor, identify different poor groups in cities and outline the common features of poor urban communities.
