ABSTRACT
China is one of the few countries in the developing world that has made progress in reducing its total number of poor during the past two decades (World Bank, 2000). Numbers of poor in China fell precipitously, from 250 million in 1978 to 30 million in 2000.1 A reduction in poverty on this scale and within such a short time is unprecedented in history and is considered by many to be one of the greatest achievements in human development in the twentieth century. Contributing to this success are policy and institutional reforms, promotion of equal access to social services and production assets, and public investments in rural areas.
