UN official praises China's poverty reduction

"China has entered a critical phase of poverty reduction as its urbanization rate had reached 52.6 percent by 2012 amid furthering economic restructuring," Chinese Vice Premier Wang Yang said on Thursday at the Global Poverty Reduction and Development Forum in Beijing.

More efforts should be made to further develop agriculture and promote poverty reduction in western areas, Wang said.

Rierson added that China should focus more on nutrition besides calories, as malnutrition could undermine quality economic growth, and "may blunt children's physical health and intellectual development, impacting talent for driving economic growth."

Among China's hunger and poverty reduction efforts, he is most impressed with China's school feeding program, describing it as "an important social investment and a wise decision."

The Chinese government started to offer nutrition subsidies of 16 billion yuan each year to 26 million poor students in rural areas in October 2011 after the NGO's Free Lunch for Children program won public support.

Rierson said the WFP is ready to collaborate with the Chinese government and other actors to drive hunger to zero and reduce poverty, and to share China's successful stories with the rest of the world.

"This can be one of China's best exports," according to the WFP representative.