ABSTRACT
China’s rapid economic growth in the order of 9.4 percent per year since economic reform started in 1978 is well recognized. Many observers also agree that the momentum for further growth in the foreseeable future is assured. The large amount of wealth created and the insufficient attention given to the welfare of residents in the rural regions have created a large income gap between the urban rich and rural poor as well as opportunities of exploitation of the latter by local government and Communist Party officials. Hence the country’s leaders now consider the number one economic and social problem to be rural poverty, despite the substantial improvement in the living standard of the rural population in recent years.
