China Tries To Censor Data About Nearly 1 Billion People in Poverty::Chinese government censors tried to control discussions about the country’s economy this week.
China Tries To Censor Data About Nearly 1 Billion People in Poverty::Chinese government censors tried to control discussions about the country’s economy this week.
Alternative headline: “The Vast Majority Of Chinese People Are Poverty Stricken”
This is really really really REALLY not good.
I haven’t looked since 2021 but I was under the impression that poverty alleviation in China had been remarkable and almost single-handedly responsible for making it look like the UN hit the Millennium Development Goals or whatever they were called. Maybe it’s a matter of degree, and people are still poor but not ultra poor?
It would be wise to keep the exchange rates and purchasing power in mind. A dollar in America doesn’t get you an equal amount of goods as a dollar’s worth of yuan in China could get you. That being said, from what I gather, most people in China live on an income that is under 2000 yuan a month, and the rest of their income is subsidized with social assistance. Even so, that’s not a great long term economic strategy if people’s basic income isn’t enough to live on.
I checked, it was alleviation of extreme poverty and the success was historically unprecedented in such a short period of time. But that leaves regular poverty, which still isn’t great.