ABSTRACT
While past success of China’s poverty alleviation efforts is indisputable, there are still great challenges ahead. More than 100 million farmers and their families still live below the offi cial poverty line (CAS, 2012). Inequality within the rural economy rose during the early reforms and has remained high since the mid-1990s (Rozelle, 1996; Gustafsson et al., 2008). Despite nearly continuous growth, the gap between urban and rural incomes has not narrowed (Fleisher and Yang, 2003; Gustafsson et al., 2008). Visitors to most parts of rural China fi nd that, while life has improved immeasurably in recent years, the landscape is still one of a poor, developing country. Understanding the importance of keeping the rural economy strong and reducing the glaring differences between the rural and urban economies, national leaders during the recent 17th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC) reiterated several times that one of the main goals of the coming decade was to integrate the rural and urban economies, ensure a more balanced growth between city and countryside, shift massive amounts of labor out of agriculture and generally seek a modern, urban-based society.
