China says it has over 82 mn poor, 200 mn according to W.Bank

Over 82 million people in China are officially under the national poverty line of USD 1 a day and the numbers could scale up to 200 million if the international standard of USD 1.25 is accepted, despite the country toppling the US to become the world's largest economy.
"Demographically, 82.49 million people are still trapped in poverty according to China's poverty line, and 200 million according to the international one," said Zheng Wenkai, vice- minister of China's Poverty Alleviation and Development (PAD) task force.
Poverty is still a salient problem in China despite economic rise, he said.
According to the data released by PAD, in just over three decades 600 million people have moved out of poverty in China.

At the end of 2013, 82 million people remained in poverty in rural areas, down 16.99 million from 2012, fresh figures released by PAD showed as it prepares to observe its first Poverty Alleviation Day on October 17, coinciding with UN's International Day for the Eradication of Poverty.
The poverty figures, however, vary a great deal from the internationally accepted World Bank standard of USD 1.25 a day

(in 2005 prices), under which the poverty figures could shoot up to 200 million, the state-run Global Times reported.
Data from the PAD office also shows that 120,000 villages, 832 key counties and counties in extremely poor contiguous regions remain poverty-stricken.

Poor people are not only poorly paid, but also beset by unavailability of water, roads, electricity, schooling, healthcare and cannot access higher incomes or loans, the PAD report said.
Zheng admitted that there are difficulties in solving the problem as poor populations are concentrated in extremely poor contiguous regions with poor living conditions, inadequate infrastructure, as well as being afflicted with natural disasters.
"It's a tough nut to crack. Poverty is a weak point for our goal of building a moderately prosperous society in all respects by 2020," he added.
The poverty figures came even as China toppled US, for the first time in 142 years, to become the biggest economy in the world, figures released by the International Monetary Fund, earlier this month, showed.

IMF figures showed the Chinese economy is worth USD 17.6 trillion, compared to US's USD 17.4 trillion.
Li Shi, director of the China Institute for Income Distribution at Beijing Normal University, said China has a huge population compared to other countries, so it is understandable that it also has a relatively high population below the poverty line.
China's GDP may seem to be overtaking the US, but China's per capita GDP in 2013 was only USD 6,767, according to the National Bureau of Statistics, while in the US in the same year it was USD 53,143, according to the World Bank.