The People’s Republic of China (henceforth PRC) has achieved remarkable progress
in rural poverty reduction since the beginning of the reform in later 1970s. Measured
by the official poverty line, rural poor population was reduced from 250 million in 1978
to 80 million in 1993 and further to 28 million in 2002, or from 31 percent of the rural
population to 3 percent. Two forces have made such progress possible: a) fast
general economic growth and b) targeted poverty reduction programs. On the other
hand, urban poverty has become a problem only since middle 1990s when the reform
of the state owned enterprises (SOEs) was on high agenda of the central government
and more and more SOE employees were laid off. Chinese government adopt a
complete different approach in addressing urban unemployment and poverty. This
paper summarizes targeting measures used in anti-poverty programs in PRC with the
focus on rural poverty and the effectiveness of various poverty interventions.