2025 concludes China's five-year plan to strengthen its poverty alleviation achievements. The Central Economic Work Conference recently outlined plans to normalize the country's poverty prevention efforts. By combining long-term risk monitoring with market integration, China's eradication of absolute poverty is not the end, but the beginning of an era of inclusive economic development.

After lifting almost a hundred million rural residents out of absolute poverty and removing 832 impoverished counties from the poverty list, China declared its fight against poverty a complete victory in February 2021, a decade ahead of the 2030 deadline of the UN's Sustainable Development Goals. The triumph then initiated a five-year transition period aimed at transforming the country's pace from radical poverty reduction to long-term poverty prevention.

Five years since eradicating extreme poverty, the momentum continues

Throughout the past five years, poverty prevention mechanisms have become a component of the border rural revitalization strategy. The transition period has maintained the economic momentum of the groups lifted out of poverty and firmly prevented any large-scale regression to poverty.

Incomes in China's formerly impoverished regions are outstripping the national average. According to New China Research, the think tank, per capita disposable income in these areas hit 17,522 yuan ($2,492) in 2024, a growth of nearly a quarter since 2021. For the past four years, these regions have outpaced the average national rural income growth.

Early detection and precise intervention prevent regression to poverty

An accurate assistance framework relies on a fast response system, allowing the government to deliver resources to people in need at the right moment. A system tracks perimeters, including weather and healthcare networks, and identifies households facing unexpected hardships, such as major illnesses or crop-failing natural disasters, allowing for early intervention and relief before they slip back into poverty.

Over 7 million people have been identified and supported during the past five years, effectively preventing regression to poverty. Multiple levels of government worked together to strengthen public service coverage, including education, healthcare, housing, and safe drinking water.

School dropouts among kids aged 6-15 have been actively kept at zero, ensuring primary education throughout the previously impoverished regions. Meanwhile, basic medical insurance now sturdily covers over 99 percent of the population lifted out of poverty. Rural tap water coverage reached 94 percent, and renovations of rural dilapidated housing and anti-seismic retrofits have seen steady progress.

Long-term goal: Reaching self-sufficiency, empowered by market forces

China's unique dynamic between the public and private sectors enabled more ways for recently alleviated regions to sustain healthy growth. By pairing the wealthy eastern provinces with the resource-rich west, the state bridges the rural-urban divide, a common developmental disease prone to worsening wealth gaps between regions.

The "10,000 Enterprises Helping 10,000 Villages" initiative, led by the State Council Leading Group Office of Poverty Alleviation, has already mobilized 110,000 private companies supporting 127,000 villages, bringing economic opportunities to 15 million people. Through e-commerce and tourism, people have moved from aid recipients to the driving force of economic growth.

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