50 F o u r D e ca d e s o f P o v e r t y R e d u c t i o n i n C h i n a
suggest that the proportion of the poor due to illness in 2018 was about 40 percent (Zhou, Guo, and
Liu 2020).
8. Strictly speaking, the authors calculate poverty with and without incomes from public transfers.
This means that, in the absence of behavioral response, the elimination of public transfers would
increase the poverty rate by 4 percentage points. In that sense, it can be seen as an upper bound.
9. By 2020, in most provinces the minimum wage was twice as high as the Di Bao line. Hence, formal
sector migrant workers who benefit from at least the minimum wage would be above the Di Bao
line. However, a large proportion of rural migrants work in informal occupations. In addition, they
typically support other family members, in which case the wage may not be sufficient to cover the
per capita Di Bao standard.
10. ASPIRE = Atlas of Social Protection Indicators of Resilience and Equity (http://datatopics
.worldbank.org/aspire/).
11. These are referred to in China as the “two no-worries” and “three guarantees.” “Two no-worries”
refers to the satisfaction of essential food and clothing needs, represented in monetary terms as
household expenditure above the food and nonfood poverty threshold. “Three guarantees” refers
to achieving compulsory education and having access to basic medical care and safe housing. Safe
drinking water was later added to the list. Each county was given a financial transfer to achieve
the three guarantees. For example, the education guarantee includes the monetary value of govern-
ment assistance to the poor to access preschool, compulsory primary and secondary, and general
higher education, such as subsidy for tuitions, fee waivers, boarding cost subsidies, value of school
meals provided for free, and various scholarships and education grants. The monetary value of
these guarantees differed across poor counties because of the different investment needs required to
achieve universal coverage with the basic public services package. As shown in CIKD (forthcoming,
chapter 1, “The Process of Poverty Reduction in China”), education, health, housing, and drinking
water benefits were valued between 3,000 RMB and slightly more than 8,000 RMB per person
per year among three case study counties, Xunwu County in Jiangxi province, Minhe County in
Qinghai province, and Daming County in Hebei province.
12. Local poverty reduction teams, headed by an official with higher education and with a clear man-
date and accountability, developed the specific local approaches. These teams would often spend
several years in one location to develop local trust and understanding and adapt policy interventions
to local needs. This approach was particularly important for the development of local economic
opportunities, such as new production methods or the development of local processing and market-
ing capabilities for agricultural products.
13. These five areas are referred to as the “five-batch policies.”
14. Working Plan on Poverty Registration, State Council Leading Group Office of Poverty Alleviation
and Development, http://nrra.gov.cn/art/2014/4/11/art_624_14224.html.
15. Including the establishment in 2014 of the hotline “12317” for reporting poverty alleviation
problems.
16. Data for provincial level funds for 2020 are not yet available.
17. These generally include industrial development for poverty alleviation, infrastructure improvement,
vocational education and skills training programs for the poor, and subsidized loans and related
management fees. Each province formulates a detailed list according to local conditions.
18. As of the end of 2021, all villages have access to broadband connections.
19. The coefficient on APF is also insignificant, though this may be due to the small sample size.
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