This book offers comprehensive analysis for individual cases of poverty alleviation to facilitate respective in-depth key learnings and an overview of poverty alleviation strategies carried out in China. Best practices were selected from representative cases in China to demonstrate the development of different approaches in the poverty alleviation journey with collective stakeholders’ efforts – Government, Industry, Academia, and Research, plus the local stakeholders engaged in the rural development activities. Overseas cases are referenced to show the outcome of similar strategies as comparison with the consideration of regional specific conditions. Through better understanding of the focal issues, areas and organizations – and their respective key challenges and solutions – there is the compilation for each case its analysis, comparative studies and SDG relevance. These aim at engaging the readers from institutes, governments, corporates, or social enterprises, to think about how to adopt the related SDG strategies. They also serve as the initiatives to facilitate potential cross-region and cross-disciplinary collaboration. The book acts as the guide on how: - Poverty Reduction is one of the key goals in SDGs – while solving this key challenge, multiple goals could be planned and tackled together to make an effective solution. - Multi-disciplinary strategies are put in place, demonstrated via success stories and best practices. Key driving factors are identified with the consideration of the driving organization nature. - A system could be developed to engage different stakeholders in the society for industry development – and to avoid returning to poverty in the long term. - Future international cooperation could be facilitated to create a poverty alleviation framework applicable across different regions.

This study systematically investigates the development process, major characteristics and weak links of China's poverty alleviation experience and conducts a comparative analysis of poverty alleviation cases. It also accurately presents the internal logic and core elements of China's poverty alleviation theory and taking the Chinese experience of poverty alleviation refines the "Two Threads One Force" theoretical framework to make a basic judgment of the "China model" for poverty alleviation. It also presents the rationale and plans for responding to new challenges to achieve poverty alleviation goals, which will enhance the welfare of the people and promote social progress and national prosperity.

This book select successful cases of poverty reduction and alleviation in the Guizhou province of China, which reflects the highest number and widest distribution of people living in poverty. The local government seeks to achieve sustainable development goals and find multiple solutions to the problem.. The book introduces local experiences and presents the whole process from policy making to practice.

This book is the general report of the targeted poverty alleviation and elimination project of 100 villages, presenting the overall progress of poverty alleviation and development of all sample villages in the tide of poverty alleviation. From 2016 to 2018, the project selected 104 poor villages (including those out of poverty) across the country to carry out national research and recorded the great changes in more than 100 poor villages in recent years with steps, nib and lens. Based on questionnaire survey data and data from village research reports, the book describes the basic village situation, poverty situation, village-level poverty management and assistance measures, causes of poverty and assistance measures, progress and results of targeted poverty alleviation in 100 poor villages across China since 2016.

This open access book explores the historical, cultural and philosophical contexts that have made anti-poverty the core of Chinese society since Liberation in 1949, and why poverty alleviation measures evolved from the simplistic aid of the 1950s to Xi Jinping’s precision poverty alleviation and its goal of eliminating absolute poverty by 2020. The book also addresses the implications of China’s experience for other developing nations tackling not only poverty but such issues as pandemics, rampant urbanization and desertification exacerbated by global warming. The first of three parts draws upon interviews of rural and urban Chinese from diverse backgrounds and local and national leaders. These interviews, conducted in even the remotest areas of the country, offer candid insights into the challenges that have forced China to continually evolve its programs to resolve even the most intractable cases of poverty. The second part explores the historic, cultural and philosophical roots of old China’s meritocratic government and how its ancient Chinese ethics have led to modern Chinese socialism’s stance that “poverty amidst plenty is immoral”. Dr. Huang Chengwei, one of China’s foremost anti-poverty experts, explains the challenges faced at each stage as China’s anti-poverty measures evolved over 70 years to emphasize “enablement” over “aid” and to foster bottom-up initiative and entrepreneurialism, culminating in Xi Jinping’s precision poverty alleviation. The book also addresses why national economic development alone cannot reduce poverty; poverty alleviation programs must be people-centered, with measurable and accountable practices that reach even to household level, which China has done with its “First Secretary” program. The third part explores the potential for adopting China’s practices in other nations, including the potential for replicating China’s successes in developing countries through such measures as the Belt and Road Initiative. This book also addresses prevalent misperceptions about China’s growing global presence and why other developing nations must address historic, systemic causes of poverty and inequity before they can undertake sustainable poverty alleviation measures of their own.

WINNER OF THE 2017 PETER KATZENSTEIN BOOK PRIZE "BEST OF BOOKS IN 2017" BY FOREIGN AFFAIRS WINNER OF THE 2018 VIVIAN ZELIZER PRIZE BEST BOOK AWARD IN ECONOMIC SOCIOLOGY "How China Escaped the Poverty Trap truly offers game-changing ideas for the analysis and implementation of socio-economic development and should have a major impact across many social sciences." ― Zelizer Best Book in Economic Sociology Prize Committee Acclaimed as "game changing" and "field shifting," How China Escaped the Poverty Trap advances a new paradigm in the political economy of development and sheds new light on China's rise. How can poor and weak societies escape poverty traps? Political economists have traditionally offered three answers: "stimulate growth first," "build good institutions first," or "some fortunate nations inherited good institutions that led to growth." Yuen Yuen Ang rejects all three schools of thought and their underlying assumptions: linear causation, a mechanistic worldview, and historical determinism. Instead, she launches a new paradigm grounded in complex adaptive systems, which embraces the reality of interdependence and humanity's capacity to innovate. Combining this original lens with more than 400 interviews with Chinese bureaucrats and entrepreneurs, Ang systematically reenacts the complex process that turned China from a communist backwater into a global juggernaut in just 35 years. Contrary to popular misconceptions, she shows that what drove China's great transformation was not centralized authoritarian control, but "directed improvisation"—top-down directions from Beijing paired with bottom-up improvisation among local officials. Her analysis reveals two broad lessons on development. First, transformative change requires an adaptive governing system that empowers ground-level actors to create new solutions for evolving problems. Second, the first step out of the poverty trap is to "use what you have"—harnessing existing resources to kick-start new markets, even if that means defying first-world norms. Bold and meticulously researched, How China Escaped the Poverty Trap opens up a whole new avenue of thinking for scholars, practitioners, and anyone seeking to build adaptive systems.