Seattle, Washington — China is the world’s most populated country with a rich cultural history that reaches back approximately 4,000 years. Throughout its history, China went through many tumultuous political turmoils that repeatedly collapsed and rebuilt the nation’s socio-economic landscape. In the past 40 years, China’s economy advanced to the forefront of the global market, making China the world’s leading exporter and one of the premier overseas investors. Despite this, China continues to struggle with extreme rural poverty.
Addressing Extreme Rural Poverty in China
China’s President Xi Jinping vowed to end poverty in China by 2020—a deadline set a decade ahead of the U.N.’s Sustainable Development Goals target of ending global poverty. China’s deadline is quickly trickling away as the world grapples with the current global health crisis. Despite how volatile 2020 has been, China has an optimistic history of improving poverty. Since 1981, 500 million Chinese citizens have managed to lift themselves above the global poverty line, earning more than $1.90 per day. Impressive as this number is, the fact remains that 43 million Chinese citizens, half of whom are physically impaired, still live in poverty.
Most rural poverty in China sits in the mountainous Western regions, where the difficult geography makes transportation difficult. This also makes the implementation of anti-poverty efforts more challenging since the inefficient infrastructure makes labor and capital transportation significantly more challenging. Additionally, those that live in the area may also struggle to commute to more urban areas where jobs are more plentiful.
Why Poverty Sticks in Rural Areas
Moving to the city has long been viewed as a solution to rural poverty in China. In the past, the Chinese government even rehomed much of its rural population to urban communities. However, this rural-to-urban migration can also exacerbate poverty. As the young and able-bodied population moves to bustling cities like Shanghai or Beijing, the more vulnerable population like women, children and the elderly get left behind.
The Hukou system is one of the major contributors to the continuation of extreme rural poverty in China. The Hukou system officially registers a household as being urban or rural. This system ties their eligibility for benefits like healthcare and education to their local governments. Those who move out of their local area are not eligible for benefits from the local government of where they move to. These residents are also not allowed to keep their old local government’s benefits. While the cities have more resources to sustain a reliable infrastructure for their citizens, rural governments struggle to protect their citizens from poverty, leaving China’s most impoverished and remote populations with less efficient healthcare and little to no formal education.
In much of China’s rural areas, the land continues to test the population that struggles to cultivate it. Many impoverished areas are remote and without a network of reliable paved roads and diverse markets. Moreover, the demand for soil and water is high due to the drier climate and degraded soil quality caused by a long history of farming on the same plot of land. However, even with these obstacles, most of the populations who live in these areas have often been there for generations, and they have a strong connection to the traditions and life of their home regions.
Something Old, Something New
Over the years, China made several efforts to alleviate extreme rural poverty in China. One such method has been to try and promote these rural, culture-rich villages as tourist destinations. However, the mountainous region proved difficult for inexperienced tourists to traverse, making it too difficult for many to visit these mountain-top communities. State banks have also lent money to villagers to get internet access and thus sell hand-made products online. Many villages have started a collective, where families that live there can share resources.
The Chinese government has also tried relocating villagers to more accessible, government-owned settlements at the foot of the mountains. These subsidized housings are safer than the mountain-top homes, where the rain and rockslides pose constant threats. More than that, it’s easier to access formal education and healthcare in these settlements.
However, while the relocation makes it easier for villagers to get their daily needs, it doesn’t come without its price. The relocation efforts often clash with the long history and traditions of populations such as the Yi people. For the Yi People, the relocation means leaving behind staples of their culture like the Yi fireplaces, their land and their farming. The types of jobs able to be sought out by the Yi people are also limited based on their education, which is rather limited. While the rural-to-urban move has been a common means of increasing income and working one’s way out of rural poverty in China, it’s not so simple for those who haven’t received a formal education.
Yet, with a new life that many from the village are settling into comes a new array of opportunities. Those growing up in these settlements are now free to pursue higher education, which could open up more employment opportunities outside of subsidence agriculture and could allow them to earn more income. Many are learning Mandarin alongside speaking their native Yi tongue, demonstrating an interesting, diverse new culture reconciling their Yi roots with the modern Chinese identity. For those who still feel a calling to the mountain tops, the steel ladders remain, where they can go back to visit their old homes.
– Catherine Lin
Photo: Flickr