Living environment of impoverished areas has been improved. The government has launched a project to renovate neglected and dangerous buildings in rural areas, with funds mainly raised by farmers and supplemented by government subsidy. Central finance has increased the subsidy from RMB5,000 to 7,500 per household, and 8,500 for those in impoverished areas, securing the basic housing needs of rural families occupying the most dangerous buildings, and experiencing the greatest financial difficulties. By the end of 2015, a total of RMB155.67 billion had been allocated across the country to support 19.97 million poor rural households in renovating neglected buildings. The government sets ensuring basic sanitary conditions the primary task of improving the living environment of poor villages, and gives preferential support to impoverished areas in protecting traditional villages, and in ensuring rural garbage and sewage treatment facilities. Since 2012, 1,194 villages in impoverished areas have been included in the List of China's Traditional Villages, each of which receives a grant of RMB3 million from central finance to protect the village and improve the living environment. Waste management is improving rapidly in rural areas, and a system of check and acceptance of treatment of rural household refuse in each province has been established, realizing synchronous progress between impoverished areas and other areas.

Poverty reduction is a systematic project entailing a set of supporting policies and mechanisms as well as full participation of the entire society. Since 2012 the Chinese government has kept up funding for poverty alleviation and reduction, implemented reforms and innovations to the working mechanism, encouraged all sectors of society to participate in poverty alleviation efforts, and improved the democratic supervision mechanism to ensure the effectiveness of poverty reduction.

Government funding for poverty alleviation keeps increasing. Since 2012 the government has proactively adjusted its fiscal expenditure structure to increase funding for poverty reduction and worked to improve the fiscal policy system for poverty alleviation funding. From 2011 to 2015, the government assigned special poverty alleviation funds amounting to RMB189.84 billion, with an average annual growth rate of 14.5 percent; it also assigned RMB5.03 billion from public lottery welfare funds to support anti-poverty development in disadvantaged former revolutionary base areas. Moreover, the government has created innovative fiscal systems and mechanisms for poverty alleviation, strengthened management of government funds for poverty alleviation, and through government funding and the market system leveraged financial capital in support of population relocation projects for poverty alleviation.

Chart: Central government's special Fund for poverty alleviation from 2010 to 2016

Graphics shows the central government's special Fund for poverty alleviation from 2010 to 2016, Oct. 17, 2016. (Xinhua/Zhou Daqing)