Eradicating poverty, a millennium vision of the Chinese nation and its people, has been at the heart of the Communist Party of China's agenda since its inception. By 2012, China's poverty elimination effort had entered a critical stage, when the most difficult challenges would have to be confronted. Chinese President Xi Jinping put forward the "targeted poverty alleviation" strategy to lift the remaining nearly 90 million poverty-stricken people out of poverty.