China increases funding for poverty alleviation

BEIJING -- The Chinese government has allocated more than 140 billion yuan (about $20.4 billion) this year to keep pace with the needs of poverty relief, said the Ministry of Finance Saturday.

The central government has allocated over 86 billion yuan, up 30.3 percent from last year. A total of 28 provincial governments have allocated about 54 billion yuan.

At the end of last year, China still had more than 43 million impoverished rural residents.

The Chinese government has vowed to lift all the rural impoverished out of poverty by 2020 to build a moderately prosperous society.

Since China started the reform and opening-up drive more than 30 years ago, over 700 million Chinese have shaken off poverty, accounting for over 70 percent of global poverty reduction in the period.