Chinese Official: 100 Million Poor People Not Getting State Help
A Chinese government official says up to 100 million poor people are not receiving state assistance because the official poverty line is set too low. Currently, Beijing says people are in living in poverty if they earn less than 680 yuan a year, or about 23 cents a day. That figure places 23 million people in China below the poverty line.
The official China Daily newspaper quotes a poverty alleviation official as saying the poverty line should be raised to the internationally-accepted level of one dollar a day. The report says a higher poverty line would raise the number of people classified as poor to between 120 million and 130 million, enabling more people to get state help with food, clothing and shelter.
The newspaper says the current poverty line is about one-fifth of the average person's income in China's countryside.
一位中国政府官员表示，由于官方贫困线设定得太低，有多达1亿的穷人得不到国家补助。北京目前认定，年收入在680元人民币以下、也就是一天收入在大约23美分以下的才算是生活贫困。如果这样计算，中国有2300万人口生活在贫困线以下。
中国官方的中国日报援引一位扶贫官员的话说，中国的贫困线应当提到国际普遍接受的水平，即一天收入在一美元以下。报导说，中国的贫困线提高之后，将把1亿2千万到1亿3千万人列为贫困人口，这样就可以有更多的人在食品、穿衣和住宅问题上得到国家补助。
中国日报说，中国目前的贫困线标准是中国农村人均收入的大约20%。
