Although the new socialist China established in 1949 is noted for remarkable reductions in poverty, poverty remains, predominantly in rural areas （see Figure 1）. In recent years, rural poverty has continued to decline rapidly, and the Chinese government is committed to ensuring that no Chinese household is beneath the national poverty line by 2020. As poverty declined, however, some of the problems that remained were increasingly difficult to resolve through development-oriented poverty alleviation and area development policy, in part as an increasing share of poor households were those for whom old age, illness, disability and an inability to work were causes of poverty and also as poor people lived outside of the main areas chosen for support. Addressing these issues involves a targeted combination of traditional development-oriented policy for poverty counties, villages and regions with wider minimum life guarantees and welfare services. Figure 1 The poverty population in China, 1978-2016 Table 1 Number of poor people at $1.90 a day （2011 PPP） （millions）, 1981-2013