Officials: Work ethic key to ending poverty

Encouraging a work ethic and a spirit of self-reliance is essential to poverty relief, not just government policies, officials from impoverished villages said at a news conference held by the State Council Information Office on Thursday.

"Poverty relief doesn't mean just giving money," said Zhao Huijie, Party secretary of the village of Xiaomiaozi in the Inner Mongolia autonomous region. "The important thing is that individuals gain the determination to become better off through diligent work. It is just like blood transfusions and blood producing. The former can save a life, but the latter helps with health."

China's impoverished population, which stood at more than 98 million at the end of 2012, was cut by two-thirds in the past five-years, the best performance in the country's history of poverty reduction.