China's poverty line of $85 per capita net income a year is too low for subsistence and fails to deliver to 100 million poor the benefits of the country's unprecedented economic boom, a senior official has said.
China's economy surged by 10.9 per cent in the first half of 2006, the fastest rise in a decade. But the poverty line failed to reflect the average standard of living,
Wu Zhong, an official in charge of international cooperation and poverty reduction with the State Council Leading Group Office of Poverty Alleviation and Development, said.
At the end of last year, China had 23.65 million people living below the poverty line. But China's poor actually totalled 120 million to 130 million, using the internationally-accepted $1 per day guideline, said Wu.
"The 23.65 million below the Chinese poverty line are actually people struggling in abject poverty and even food, clothing and shelter are a problem for them," he told an international symposium on poverty and international cooperation in Chengdu, capital of Sichuan Province.
"So another 100 million poor people have not been categorised as poor and therefore are not getting the help they need," he said.
China's abject poverty population has been reduced by more than 100 million in the 20-year period from 1985 to 2005, thanks to the country's poverty alleviation efforts.
China had 125 million people in abject poverty with per capita annual income below $85 in 1985.
But now the country has 40.67 million people whose annual income is less than $118.
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