On May 10, 2016, China announced the relocation of 2 million individuals from rural and remote areas to urban cities. The announcement enacts just one of the many changes China plans to make. China’s government hopes to lift all of its impoverished citizens over the poverty line by 2020.

The relocation strategy would move some of the country’s poorest citizens to areas with better resources, such as healthcare and education.

In addition, citizens will transfer to areas with better roads and access to water. For these individuals, moving to an urban city also offers opportunities for better jobs.

Reuters reported that Liu Yongfu, a Chinese government official from the Leading Group Office of Poverty Alleviation and Development, stated that the number of people relocated would gradually reach 3 million.

In March, the Chinese government also announced that they would increase poverty alleviation funding by 45 percent.

Poverty Action Lab, a research center at MIT, reported that urban relocation schemes contribute to the alleviation of poverty. Slums and poor communities can become ‘traps’ and provide little opportunity for individual economic growth.

As the most populous country in the world with over 1.3 billion people, China has previously struggled to improve the standard of living for all of its residents.

In October 2014, the Wall Street Journal reported that about 200 million people live under $1.25 U.S. dollars a day. In addition, almost half of those individuals lived under $1 a day.

In the same month, China announced its plans to alleviate poverty in its country altogether by 2020, with President Xi Jinping stating that the goal was achievable.

Since 1990, China has lifted almost 500 million individuals out of poverty. The World Bank reports that over half of China’s population was living in poverty at that time.

In 2010, the percentage of people living in poverty had dropped to 11 percent. Because its economic growth has slowed over the past two decades, the government is now relying on social schemes to alleviate poverty in China.

Despite all of the obstacles China has faced and will continue to struggle against, the nation is making considerable progress. President Xi is committed to reaching the U.N. Millennium Development Goals.

In fact, China was the first developing nation to meet the target of cutting its poverty rate in half by 2015. With that massive success behind them, China is confident that it will succeed.

– Isabella Farr

Photo: Flickr