Poverty and Development in China: Alternative Approaches to Poverty Assessment

摘要

The persistence of poverty in many parts of China despite over 30 years of rapid growth continues to exercise the Party leadership. We know that this poverty has many causes. In part it reflects adverse physical geography: it is hard to imagine how communities dotted across the Himalayan plateau will ever be rich in the absence of large state subsidies. But poverty also reflects forces as diverse as the operation of class processes, and the imperial project relentless pursued by the Han state throughout its colonies in western China. Yet, important though these policy questions are, they put the cart before the horse.