China - a success story in reducing poverty in less than 30 years

Research Paper (undergraduate) from the year 2008 in the subject Politics - International Politics - Topic: Globalization, Political Economics, grade: A, Xiamen University (School of Economics), course: Selected Issues on Modern China, language: English, abstract: This paper takes a critical look at the state of poverty in China and governments efforts at alleviation. Our assessment has been on Chinese Government and other development partners interventions meant to halt poverty. Our analysis indicated that China has indeed succeeded in reducing the number of people in absolute poverty from 250 million to 15 million in less than 30 years, which is very encouraging. But it should be pointed that this has been at the expense of its environment. However, its environmental problems are somewhat a major obstacle. As the average citizen attains a middle income status, their demand for a clean environment coupled with pollution free atmosphere becomes imperative. China should be able to overcome these environmentally related problems as it strives for global recognition.

Joseph Ato Forson is currently a PhD student at the Graduate School of Public Administration, National Institute of Development Administration (NIDA). He's majoring in Policy and Management.