Battling against poverty

A higher poverty line will see more people falling under it, but the task has changed from only helping the abject poor with basic needs of food and clothing to assisting low-income rural villagers to improve their living standards.

China adopted a unified poverty line of 1,067 yuan per annum ($156) at the end of last year for both the destitute and low-income population, up from 785 yuan for the impoverished and 865 for low-income residents in 2007.

Based on the consumer price index for 2008, the figure has been increased to 1196 yuan this year, taking the total number of people eligible for State poverty-alleviation aid to 40,07 million from less than 2 million in 2007.