China in 2035

Front matter

China in 2035

Towards a Society of Common Prosperity for All

ANGANG HU SHAOJIE ZHOU

Preface

Having built a moderately prosperous society in all respects that benefits more than 1.4 billion people, China has entered the stage of building a society of common prosperity and embarked on a new journey to achieve its second centennial goals. Common prosperity is an essential requirement of socialism, an important feature of China’s modernization, and a goal that the Chinese Communists continue to pursue, a long march from generation to generation.

As early as 1955, Mao Zedong put forward the grand vision of achieving common prosperity under socialism. In the process of promoting the agrarian socialist transformation, Mao proposed to “make all rural people common prosperity.”

After the reform and opening up, Deng Xiaoping scientifically explained the essence of socialism: to emancipate the productive forces, develop them, eliminate exploitation, eliminate polarization, and achieve common prosperity. He took a dialectical view of the relationship between the emancipation of the productive forces and common prosperity, and proposed “to let some people get rich first and break the poverty trap while preventing polarization, and finally achieving common prosperity.”

Jiang Zemin pointed out that achieving common prosperity is the basic principle and essential feature of socialism, which must not be wavered. In practice, he launched the Regional Coordinated Development Strategy, which is also an important task and means of promoting common prosperity. He stressed that starting from the 9th Five-Year v vi PREFACE

Plan, more attention should be paid to supporting the economic development of the central and Western regions, gradually stepping up efforts to counter the trend of widening regional disparities, and actively working to narrow the gap. During the 10th Five-Year Plan, China began to implement the strategy for the large-scale development of Western China.

Hu Jintao put forward the Scientific Outlook on Development, emphasizing the path of common prosperity and promoting well-rounded human development. Development should be in the interests of the people, rely on their support, and be of direct benefit to them. The goal is to ensure that all people have the right to education, employment and pay, medical and old-age services, and housing so that exploring a path of a harmonious society.

Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC), General Secretary Xi Jinping has given higher priority to achieving prosperity for all, attached great importance to poverty alleviation, put forward the idea of a targeted approach to poverty alleviation, and lifted nearly 100 million rural poor people out of absolute poverty.

After completing the ambitious goal of building a moderately prosperous society, the Party Central Committee clearly proposed to achieve common prosperity for everyone and made it a long-term development goal. Xi stressed that “entering a new stage of development, the full, correct and comprehensive implementation of the new development philosophy must pay more attention to the issue of common prosperity,” and pointed out that “achieving common prosperity is not only an economic issue but also an important political issue related to the CPC’s governing base.”

China already has favorable conditions for achieving common prosperity. These include: Achieving common prosperity under the leadership of the Party, which is a political guarantee; Achieving common prosperity while maintaining medium to high economic growth and high income, building the world’s largest moderately developed urbanized society, and narrowing the gap between urban and rural residents in terms of per capita income and consumption expenditure with continuous growth, which is a driving force for economic development; Significantly enhancing the country’s financial strength and distribution capacity, and building the world’s largest social security system with universal coverage and access for all, which is an important guarantee. From 2021 to 2035, China will make more obvious and substantial progress in the common prosperity for everyone through three Five-Year Plans.

PREFACE vii

Achieving common prosperity is a daunting and long-term task that faces many challenges. These include urban-rural disparities, uneven regional development, a large number of vulnerable groups, a still high Gini coefficient, an inadequate redistributive capacity of the country, and so on. However, China’s current development base and development potential are fully capable of addressing these challenges and achieving common prosperity.

Based on the overall goal and milestones for achieving common prosperity in the new era proposed by the Fifth Plenary Session of the 19th CPC Central Committee, and based on the 14th Five-Year Plan (the first common prosperity plan), we have proposed and designed a system of five major development goals and quantitative indicators. These include productivity indicators (4), development opportunity indicators (3), income distribution indicators (3), development guarantee indicators (9), and people’s welfare indicators (3). These indicators are systematically integrated with the main indicators of the 13th and 14th Five-Year Plans, and forward-looking to 2035 based on the development trends of the main indicators. They draw up a grand blueprint for building a common prosperity society step by step, i.e., narrowing the gap between urban and rural areas, regional development, and residents’ income, achieving equalization of basic public services for all, and realizing the ambitious goal of making more obvious and substantial progress in common prosperity for everyone by 2035.

The main tasks for promoting common prosperity for everyone in the new era include: (1) upholding China’s basic socialist economic system and promoting the political, institutional, economic, social, and ecological advantages of common prosperity; (2) implementing the strategy of rural vitalization, promoting the modernization of agriculture and rural areas, and accelerating the integrated development of urban and rural areas; (3) implementing the new-type urbanization plan, realizing the people-centered urbanization development model, and upgrading the level of urban governance; (4) realizing the equalization of basic public services, enhancing the public service policy system covering the entire population, and accelerating the process of integrated development of urban and rural areas, unification of basic public service standards, and policy convergence; (5) clarifying the responsibilities of governments at all levels for the provision of basic public services; (6) promoting the equalization vill PREFACE of non-basic public services; (7) supporting the vitalization and development of special types of areas; (8) assisting low-income people with special difficulties (200 million to 300 million people).

The policy of promoting the building of a common affluent society for all people requires a national effort. This includes: (1) formulating a national blueprint for promoting common prosperity, adhering to a nationwide approach and integrated planning, while encouraging regional initiative and innovation and allowing each to show its own capabilities; (2) promoting common prosperity in the context of high-quality development, and encouraging all parts of the country to actively promote the transition from medium to high income and from high to exceptional levels of human development in the light of actual conditions; (3) insisting on placing employment protection as a priority in the policy of promoting common prosperity, facilitating more adequate and higher-quality employment, effectively controlling the urban unemployment rate, contributing to the optimization of employment structure, continuously improving labour productivity and employment equity, helping the unemployed to train or change jobs for re-employment, promoting equal employment opportunities for men and women, and reaping the gender dividend and human capital dividend of China’s high female labor force participation rate; (4) improving and optimizing the income distribution system, insisting on synchronizing the growth of residents’ income with economic growth, increasing labour compensation with the increase in labour productivity, enlarging the proportion of labour compensation in the initial distribution, expanding the channels for residents’ income growth, and promoting the diversification of urban and rural residents’ income sources; (5) building a family-friendly society, such as a childbirthfriendly society, an elderly-friendly society, and a health-friendly society, and making full use of China’s unique social advantage of “women holding up half the world,” and utilizing the traditional mutual assistance and reciprocity of rural families as a zero-distribution mechanism; (6) strengthening the national system of basic public services, improving the development mechanism of non-basic public services, and developing the financial guarantee mechanism of basic public services; (7) improving the state’s ability to extract financial resources, increasing the proportion of general public budget revenue and expenditure in the gross domestic product (GDP), and utilizing the redistribution function of the socialist state; (8) strengthening the state-owned economy and promoting the development of the private economy.

PREFACE Ix

Promoting common prosperity for everyone is an extremely ambitious development goal that must go through a rather long historical development process. Due to its long-term, complex, and arduous nature, the realization of common prosperity is a protracted struggle that cannot be rushed or postponed over and over again; it cannot be a “great leap forward” or a step-by-step approach; it cannot be an equalization of wealth and poverty, let alone a polarization. According to the regular characteristics of China’s socialist modernization, respect the objective law of development, make steady and solid progress, accumulate small victories for medium victories, accumulate medium victories for the great victories, accumulate quantitative changes for qualitative changes, accumulate qualitative changes for tremendous changes.

Beijing, China Angang Hu Shaojie Zhou

INTRODUCTION: CHINA ENTERS A NEW STAGE OF COMMON PROSPERITY

As a predominant feature of Chinese-style modernization, achieving common prosperity for all people is the essential requirement of socialism.

In November 2021, the Resolution of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China on the Major Achievements and Historical Experience of the Party over the Past Century (hereinafter referred to as the Resolution), which was adopted at the Sixth Plenary Session of the 19th Central Committee of the CPC, pointed out that the new era of socialism with Chinese characteristics is “the era of gradually achieving common prosperity for all the people,” that is, all the people will work together under the leadership of the CPC to build a common prosperous society. This is another grand strategic goal of Chinese-style modernization after the first centennial goal of building a moderately prosperous society.

In 1979, Deng Xiaoping put forward the strategic goal of building a “moderately prosperous society” and used the term “moderately prosperous home” for the first time to describe the Chinese-style socialist modernization. Since then, “moderately prosperous level” and “moderately prosperous society” have become the key words of China’s modernization development over the past 40 years since the reform and opening up, and building a moderately prosperous society in all aspects has become the first centennial goal, among which the elimination of hundreds of millions of people in absolute poverty is the key symbol of finishing building a moderately prosperous society in all aspects.

xi xii INTRODUCTION: CHINA ENTERS A NEW STAGE OE ...

The “two centennial goals” are two important milestones in achieving the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation and two key milestones of fully building a modern socialist country in China. On July 1, 2021, General Secretary Xi Jinping solemnly proclaimed at the ceremony marking the centenary of the CPC that “Through the continued efforts of the whole Party and the entire nation, we have realized the first centenary goal of building a moderately prosperous society in all respects. This means that we have brought about a historic resolution to the problem of absolute poverty in China, and we are now marching in confident strides toward the second centenary goal of building China into a great modern socialist country in all respects.”! This achievement also marks China’s completion of the target of reducing extreme poverty of the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development 10 years ahead of schedule.

Socialism with Chinese characteristics has entered a new stage of the second centennial goal. The overall goal of this stage is to develop China into a great modern socialist country that is prosperous, strong, democratic, culturally advanced, harmonious, and beautiful by the middle of the twenty-first century. Achieving common prosperity is one of the core tasks of the new stage.

Proposals of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China on Formulating the Fourteenth Five-Year Plan for National Economic and Social Development and the Long-term Goals for 2035 (hereinafter referred to as “the Proposal”), adopted at the Fifth Plenary Session of the 19th Central Committee of the CPC, provides a outlook of the visionary goals for 2035, specifying the basic features and main tasks for the basic achievement of socialist modernization in 2035, namely, “the per capita GDP will reach the level of moderately developed countries, the size of the middle-income group will expand remarkably, equitable access to basic public services will be ensured, and disparities in urban-rural development and in living standards will significantly reduce,” and “people will lead a better life, and more notable and substantial progress will be achieved in promoting well-rounded human development and achieving common prosperity for everyone.” General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed

1 Xi Jinping, “Speech at a Ceremony Marking the Centenary of the Communist Party of China”, People’s Daily, July 2, 2021.

2 “Outline of the 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-2025) for National Economic and Social Development and Vision 2035 of the People’s Republic of China”, People’s Daily, November 4, 2021.

INTRODUCTION: CHINA ENTERS A NEW STAGE OF ... xiii out in the note of the Proposal that we must put the promotion of common prosperity for all the people in a more important position, be down-to-earth, make unremitting endeavor, and work more proactively toward this goal. He also stressed in particular that such statement is the first time in the Party’s plenum document.* This marks a new stage in China’s march toward common prosperity from 2021 to 2035.4

On August 17, 2021, General Secretary Xi Jinping presided over the tenth meeting of the Central Committee for Financial and Economic Affairs, specifically stressed efforts to promote common prosperity in the pursuit of high-quality development. He pointed out, “Since the 18th Party Congress, the Party Central Committee has grasped the new changes in the stage of development, put the gradual achievement of common prosperity for all the people on a more important position, promoted coordinated regional development, taken strong measures to protect and improve people’s livelihood, won the tough battle against poverty, and built a moderately prosperous society of all respects, creating good conditions for promoting common prosperity. Now it is the historical stage of solidly promoting common prosperity.”°

“Common prosperity” has become the theme and core goal of China’s economic and social development in the coming period, and will also become a key symbol for the basic achievement of socialist modernization, starting a new Long March to achieve common prosperity for over 1.4 billion Chinese people.

Given this context, this book focuses on the development goal and practical ways of building a society of common prosperity for all people by 2035, with the key topic of “making more obvious and substantial progress toward common prosperity for all people.” This book is divided

3 Xi Jinping, “Explanation of Outline of the 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-2025) for National Economic and Social Development and Vision 2035 of the People’s Republic of China”, People’s Daily, November 4, 2021.

4 In 2011, the author had proposed that by 2030, China should not only become a world economic power and innovation power, but also cross the middle-income trap and move toward a common prosperity society with favorable conditions of: first, the strong political will of the Party; second, adherence to the socialist road; third, relatively strong state financial capacity to strongly support the narrowing of the development gap; and fourth, local innovations that provide valuable experience. See Hu Angang, Yan Yilong, and Wei Xing, China 2030: Toward Common Prosperity, China Renmin University Press, 2011, p. 130.

5 Xi Jinping, Making Solid Progress Toward Common Prosperity, Qiushi, Vol. 20, 2021.

xiv INTRODUCTION: CHINA ENTERS A NEW STAGE OF ...

into a preface, introduction, and seven chapters, mainly answering the following major questions: Why did the Party Central Committee put forward the grand goal of common prosperity? What is the theoretical basis of common prosperity? How does China, as a socialist developing country, pursue this grand goal of common prosperity and put it into practice? Can China achieve the goal of common prosperity in the new era? What are the favorable conditions and development bases, and what are the major challenges and risks it may face? What are the overall goals and strategic thinking for achieving common prosperity? What are the specific stage development goals and quantitative indicator systems? What are the major long-term tasks? What are the key policies and concrete suggestions in promoting common prosperity?

The introduction explains that after fully building a moderately prosperous society benefiting more than 1.4 billion people, China has entered a new era of building a society of common prosperity for all people, an upgraded version of the Chinese road and a new exploration of the Chinese development road.

The first chapter elaborates the theoretical basis and ideological sources of achieving common prosperity in China as the theoretical basis of the research theme of this book.

Chapter 2 summarizes the social practice of continuously promoting common prosperity since the founding of New China which can be divided into three periods. The first is the period of socialist revolution and construction, which laid the fundamental political premise and institutional foundation of socialism for achieving common prosperity. The second is the new period of reform and opening up and socialist modernization, which focused on economic development, removed the economic straitjacket to unleash productive potential, eradicated extreme poverty, and made people rich as soon as possible, providing the institutional guarantee of the socialist market-economy system and material conditions for realizing common prosperity. The third is the new era of socialism with Chinese characteristics, a new era in which people of all ethnic groups across the country get united and struggle to continuously create a better life and gradually achieve common prosperity for all people.

Chapter 3 provides an in-depth analysis of the basis and challenges for achieving the goal of common prosperity. Many favorable conditions are already in place for China to enter a new era of common prosperity for all people. Given this, the Party Central Committee, with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core, has made a major strategic decision to promote

INTRODUCTION: CHINA ENTERS A NEW STAGE OF ... XV the achievement of common prosperity, which is consistent with and fully reflects the fundamental and long-term interests of the whole nation. At the same time, we must also realize that the achievement of this ambitious goal faces many challenges and the task is very arduous. However, the opportunities are greater than the challenges and the solutions are more than difficulties, which requires actively creating and tightly grasping the new period of strategic opportunities for development, proactively responding to various foreseeable and unforeseeable risks and challenges, and building a common prosperity society together in effectively dealing with various risks and challenges.

Chapter 4 analyzes in detail the overall goals and indicator system for achieving common prosperity in the new era. This includes what kind of society of common prosperity should be built, how this goal should be achieved in stages and steps; how to design the overall goals and key milestones, and what specific goals and quantifiable and assessable indicators should be selected. This requires the goal-oriented and problem-oriented approach, unity of righteousness and innovation, and in-depth study of a comprehensive alignment with the 2035 vision proposed by the Party Central Committee, with both a grand vision and an implementable, operable and achievable phased and step-by-step approach to better build a society of common prosperity with Chinese characteristics.

Chapter 5 puts forward the major tasks for promoting common prosperity in the new era, including adhering to the basic socialist economic system; implementing the rural revitalization strategy; implementing the new urbanization strategy; achieving equalization of basic public services; focusing on supporting the revitalization and development of special types of areas; and focusing on helping low-income people with special difficulties. These tasks should both reflect the overall nature of promoting common prosperity and highlight the key points and shortcomings.

Chapter 6 puts forward the main policy thinking and suggestions for promoting common prosperity, including formulating national and local action plans to promote common prosperity; promoting common prosperity in high-quality development; adhering to the basic state policy of giving priority to employment; adhering to the socialist principle of distribution based on labour and the coexistence of multiple modes of distribution, regulating the order of income distribution and optimizing the structure of income distribution; actively implementing the national strategy to cope with population aging and fewer children, and building a xvi INTRODUCTION: CHINA ENTERS A NEW STAGE OE ...

family-friendly society; and improving the state’s financial drawing power to fully play to the important role of state redistribution.

Chapter 7, as the conclusion of the book, elaborates on the great practical significance and world significance of achieving common prosperity for more than 1.4 billion Chinese people under the leadership of the CPC, that is, after creating two miracles of rapid economic development and long-term social stability and eliminating absolute poverty, China is gradually achieving common prosperity for all people and building a socialist modernization country on all fronts. This has formed a historical baton mechanism for building socialist modernization with Chinese characteristics and achieving common prosperity, passing from one generation to the next, writing a new chapter of the Chinese era in the twenty-first century, and creating a new path for human beings to achieve common prosperity.

Contents

1 China’s “Miracle of Poverty Reduction”: From an Extremely Poor Country to a Moderately Prosperous Society in All Respects 1.1 China Creates a World “Poverty Reduction Miracle” 12 The Historical Process of China’s Creation of the “Poverty Reduction Miracle” 1.2.1 The Socialist Construction Period Laid the Foundation for the Creation of the Poverty Reduction Miracle 1.2.2 Sustained High Economic Growth After the Reform and Opening Up Promotes Large-Scale Poverty Reduction 12.3 National Poverty Reduction Strategy and Actions as Key Pillars of China’s Poverty Reduction Miracle 1.3 Decoding the Institutional Factors Behind China’s “Poverty Reduction Miracle” 14 From the “Poverty Reduction Miracle” to Building a Society of Common Prosperity pi xviii CONTENTS

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Common Prosperity Is a Value Requirement of Marxist Political Economy

Chapter 1

China’s “Miracle of Poverty Reduction”: From an Extremely Poor Country to a Moderately Prosperous Society in All Respects

The process of China comprehensively building a well-off society is one where the phenomenon of poverty is continuously reduced, and the people become increasingly prosperous. Poverty alleviation, comprehensive well-being, and common prosperity are interconnected and internally consistent, yet each has its own emphasis and differences. Poverty alleviation is an important part of and the bottom-line task for comprehensive well-being. Only by winning the battle against poverty can the “quality” of a comprehensive well-off society be ensured. Comprehensive well-being is an important foundation for achieving common prosperity. Only by realizing comprehensive well-being can a solid foundation be laid for achieving common prosperity. Common prosperity is the ultimate goal of poverty alleviation and comprehensive well-being. Only by promoting common prosperity can the achievements of poverty alleviation and comprehensive well-being be truly consolidated, further highlighting the superiority of the socialist system with Chinese characteristics.

This chapter views China’s “poverty reduction miracle” as a perspective to sort through the historical process of eliminating absolute poverty. It analyzes the institutional support behind the “poverty reduction miracle,” thus deeply understanding how China has transformed from a major poor country to a comprehensively well-off society, and further building a society of common prosperity.

11 CHINA CREATES A WORLD “POVERTY REDUCTION MIRACLE”

The concept of “xiaokang” (moderate prosperity) is rooted in traditional Chinese culture. More than 2000 years ago, it was first mentioned in the “Book of Songs,” an ancient collection of Chinese poetry. The idea was to advise rulers to empathize with the hardships of the people’s lives and to align with the simple wishes and earnest hopes of the people for a peaceful life. Thus, “xiaokang” embodies the profound cultural heritage of China and has been a beautiful vision deeply rooted in the hearts of the Chinese people for thousands of years. However, throughout the thousands of years of dynastic rises and falls, and the unification and division of the country, constrained by the level of productive forces and the feudal social system, the “xiaokang society” has always been a fantasy, and ordinary people have always lived in poverty, struggling for survival. Especially, when Western countries successively started industrialization and gradually moved toward modern society, China gradually became a laggard and marginalized in industrialization. After the Opium War broke out in 1840, the Chinese nation suffered unprecedented disasters, and the state was weakened and impoverished, with the people living in hardship. More than 100 years ago, the founding of the Communist Party of China profoundly changed the course of Chinese history. It deeply altered the direction and process of the development of the Chinese nation after modern times, profoundly transformed the destiny and future of the Chinese people and the Chinese nation, and profoundly changed the trend and pattern of world development. Under the leadership of the Communist Party of China, the People’s Republic of China was established, realizing national independence and people’s liberation, and initiating China’s industrialization and modernization. After the founding of the People’s Republic of China, China went through the socialist transformation of agriculture, handicrafts, and capitalist industry and commerce, and gradually established a planned economic system. During the period of the planned economy, China embarked on industrialization with an extremely low level of economic development and human capital, and the Chinese economy entered a period of modern economic growth. Although the Chinese economy experienced significant fluctuations during this period, the average growth rate was higher than any other period in history, laying an industrial foundation for China’s reform and opening up. According to data from the National Bureau of Statistics of China, from 1952 to 1978, China’s average GDP growth rate reached 6.1%, and the average per capita GDP growth rate was 4%.

Despite the high growth rate during the planned economy period, the extremely low level of economic development at the beginning of the founding of the People’s Republic of China determined that eradicating poverty was a daunting task. At the beginning of the reform and opening up in 1978, China was still an extremely poor country, one of the poorest in the world. According to China’s national poverty line standards in 2010, the rural poverty incidence rate was 97.5%. Therefore, eradicating poverty was an important task that must be completed in China’s modernization construction, and it was also linked with the concept of Chinese-style modernization. On December 6, 1979, Deng Xiaoping responded to questions from Ohira Masayoshi regarding China’s realization of the four modernizations, stating, “Our concept of the four modernizations is not like your concept of modernization, but a ‘moderately prosperous society’.” He explicitly proposed the goal of establishing a moderately prosperous society in China by the end of the twentieth century, pointing out, “What is meant by moderately prosperous, in terms of gross national product, is an average per capita income of 800 US dollars.”

Since Deng Xiaoping creatively proposed the concept of “xiaokang” (moderately prosperous) in 1979, building a moderately prosperous society has become the political commitment of the Communist Party of China in governance. Under the leadership of four generations of leaders, Deng Xiaoping, Jiang Zemin, Hu Jintao, and Xi Jinping, and through continuous efforts over 40 years, the goal of “moderately prosperous” has been realized step by step, from “moderately prosperous households” to a “moderately prosperous society,” from “overall moderate prosperity” to “comprehensive moderate prosperity,” from “comprehensive construction” to “comprehensive completion.” The goal of moderate prosperity has been continuously realized, and the dream of a moderately prosperous society has become a reality.!

Figure 1.1 reflects the continuous decline in the proportion of the rural poor in China.” According to the current 2010 national poverty l Information Office of the State Council of the People’s Republic of China: ‘China’s Comprehensive Well-off Society,’ September 2021.

2 The ‘1978 standard’ is a low-level subsistence standard set at 100 yuan per person per year at 1978 prices. Under this standard, food expenditure accounts for about 85% of the line, in 1978 nearly all (97.5%) of the rural population were poor; by 2000, 50% of China’s rural population was poor, and China remained a low-income country; by 2012, 10.2% of China’s rural population was still poor, representing the segment of the population that was hardest to lift out of poverty. Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party, with Xi Jinping at its core, the Party Central Committee has placed poverty alleviation in a prominent position in national governance, making it the bottom-line task for building a comprehensively prosperous society. Precision poverty alleviation and targeted poverty eradication have been adopted as basic strategies, organizing a people’s war on poverty alleviation. By 2020, China had achieved total poverty alleviation in rural areas, eliminating absolute poverty, resolving regional poverty, and historically resolving the issue of absolute poverty that has plagued the Chinese nation for thousands of years, which has also become a key indicator and the biggest highlight in the building of a comprehensively prosperous society.

Since the 18th National Congress, the income of the poor population in our country has increased significantly. The average disposable income of rural residents in poor areas increased from 6079 yuan in 2013 to 12,588 yuan in 2020, with an average annual growth of 11.6%, consistently outpacing the national rural average and 2.3 percentage points higher than the national rural rate. Especially, the work on precision poverty alleviation has been outstanding. Over 90% of the registered poor population have received support for industrial poverty alleviation and employment, with an average annual increase in per capita net income of 30.2%, steadily enhancing their ability to independently lift themselves out of poverty. Besides significant income growth, the infrastructure and public service levels in poor areas have also markedly improved. In terms of infrastructure, all eligible villages have access to total, basically ensuring a daily caloric intake of 2100 kilocalories per person. However, the quality of food is relatively poor, with a high proportion of coarse grains in staple food and a very low proportion of meat and eggs in non-staple food, providing just enough to satisfy hunger. The ‘2008 standard’ is a basic subsistence standard set at 1196 yuan per person per year at 2008 prices. Under this standard, the proportion of food expenditure is reduced to 60%, basically ensuring ‘adequate food and clothing.’ This standard expands non-food consumption expenses on the basis of the ‘1978 standard.’ The ‘2010 standard,’ which is the current rural poverty standard, is a stable subsistence standard set at a living level of 2300 yuan per person per year at 2010 prices.