China to add 100 million rural poor after poverty threshold increase

Roughly 100 million rural Chinese will officially be recognized as poor following the country’s announced plan to raise the poverty threshold, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing state-run news agency Xinhua. Central authorities will raise the threshold to RMB2,300 (US$361) in annual net income, a 92% rise compared to the previous threshold set in 2009. Rural residents earning less than that amount will qualify for antipoverty subsidies. The new threshold will quadruple the number of rural poor and bring the official count of the poor population closer to independent estimates. The UN defines poverty as living on $1.25 or less a day, which would equate to 254 million Chinese or nearly 20% of the population. Human rights advocates have criticized China in the past for setting the poverty threshold too low.