China

Poverty is decreasing in the rapidly growing economy of China, which has shown its economic potential during the last quarter of a century. Per capita income has increased tremendously, and the [Page 230]poverty rate decreased in the last decades from 64 percent to just 10 percent. However, there are still millions of people who are suffering from hunger and are living below the poverty line. Since 1978, when major reforms started, the average rate of growth of China’s per capita income increased to 8 percent, and the Chinese income grew faster than it did in any other country. In the same time span, the rate of poverty with regard to the rural population decreased by 88.7 percent, meaning that only 28 to 29 million people ...