IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/devpol/v38y2020i5p541-554.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

China’s rapidly evolving practice of poverty resettlement: Moving millions to eliminate poverty

Author

Listed:
  • Sarah Rogers
  • Jie Li
  • Kevin Lo
  • Hua Guo
  • Cong Li

Abstract

Motivation Unlike other places where resettlement is largely a by‐product of large infrastructure projects, in China resettlement is used as a tool for poverty alleviation. With the introduction of Xi Jinping’s Targeted Poverty Alleviation, and the goal to end absolute poverty by 2020, resettlement has become central to China’s poverty‐alleviation practice. Rather than investing in dispersed, remote villages, the Chinese government prefers to bring people to development by constructing high‐density resettlement sites in small towns and peri‐urban areas: up to 16 million people are being resettled between 2016 and 2020. Despite the scale of these interventions, the English‐language literature on poverty resettlement is limited and has yet to detail rapidly evolving policies or how these are playing out on the ground. Purpose In this article we examine how poverty resettlement projects are working under Targeted Poverty Alleviation, with a focus on the implementation and impacts of, as well as overlapping motives for, projects in Shaanxi and Gansu. Approach and Methods Our analysis draws on semi‐structured interviews and secondary data collected in multiple sites in two provinces. Findings Our findings show that China’s intense focus on resettlement as a tool for poverty alleviation has resulted in reduced financial burdens on those resettled, but is also engendering new conflicts at the local level. Policy implications Our analysis highlights the contested nature of state‐driven resettlement for poverty alleviation and raises questions about the relevance of this practice for other developing countries.

Suggested Citation

  • Sarah Rogers & Jie Li & Kevin Lo & Hua Guo & Cong Li, 2020. "China’s rapidly evolving practice of poverty resettlement: Moving millions to eliminate poverty," Development Policy Review, Overseas Development Institute, vol. 38(5), pages 541-554, September.
  • Handle: RePEc:bla:devpol:v:38:y:2020:i:5:p:541-554
    DOI: 10.1111/dpr.12435
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/dpr.12435
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/dpr.12435?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Lena Kuhn & Stephan Brosig & Linxiu Zhang, 2016. "The Brink of Poverty: Implementation of a Social Assistance Programme in Rural China," Journal of Current Chinese Affairs - China aktuell, Institute of Asian Studies, GIGA German Institute of Global and Area Studies, Hamburg, vol. 45(1), pages 75-108.
    2. Park, Albert & Wang, Sangui, 2010. "Community-based development and poverty alleviation: An evaluation of China's poor village investment program," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 94(9-10), pages 790-799, October.
    3. Meng, Lingsheng, 2013. "Evaluating China's poverty alleviation program: A regression discontinuity approach," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 101(C), pages 1-11.
    4. World Bank, 2009. "China - From Poor Areas to Poor People : China’s Evolving Poverty Reduction Agenda - An Assessment of Poverty and Inequality in China," World Bank Publications - Reports 3031, The World Bank Group.
    5. Wang, Wenlue & Ren, Qian & Yu, Jin, 2018. "Impact of the ecological resettlement program on participating decision and poverty reduction in southern Shaanxi, China," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 95(C), pages 1-9.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Peijun Wang & Jing Wang & Chunbo Zhu & Yan Li & Weijun Sun & Jinyi Li, 2023. "Factors Influencing Livelihood Resilience of Households Resettled from Coal Mining Areas and Their Measurement—A Case Study of Huaibei City," Land, MDPI, vol. 13(1), pages 1-19, December.
    2. Wen Hu & Yuquan Xie & Shuting Yan & Xilin Zhou & Chuancheng Li, 2022. "The Reshaping of Neighboring Social Networks after Poverty Alleviation Relocation in Rural China: A Two-Year Observation," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(8), pages 1-18, April.
    3. Jun Fan & Sichuan Luo & Attachai Jintrawet & Xingming Fan & Ruijia Guo, 2022. "A Framework of Development-Oriented Poverty Alleviation Implementation Projects in Rural China: The Case of Jinggu County," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 12(9), pages 1-19, September.
    4. Jiaxin Wu & Jigang Zhang & Hongjuan Yang, 2023. "Sustainable Development of Farmers in Minority Areas after Poverty Alleviation Relocation: Based on an Improved Sustainable Livelihood Analysis Framework," Land, MDPI, vol. 12(5), pages 1-18, May.
    5. Yang Zhou & Chunyang Tong & Yongsheng Wang, 2022. "Road construction, economic growth, and poverty alleviation in China," Growth and Change, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 53(3), pages 1306-1332, September.
    6. Jingjing Sun & Jie Li & Yue Cui, 2024. "Does Non-Farm Employment Promote Farmland Abandonment of Resettled Households? Evidence from Shaanxi, China," Land, MDPI, vol. 13(2), pages 1-20, January.
    7. Ruilian Zhang & John R. Owen & Deanna Kemp & Guoqing Shi, 2022. "An applied framework for assessing the relative deprivation of dam‐affected communities," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 30(1), pages 176-190, February.
    8. Xue Bai & Zhaoyu Xie & Bart Julien Dewancker, 2022. "Exploring the Factors Affecting User Satisfaction in Poverty Alleviation Relocation Housing for Minorities through Post-Occupancy Evaluation: A Case Study of Pu’er," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(22), pages 1-19, November.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Georgina Davie & Mark Wang & Sarah Rogers & Jie Li, 2021. "Targeted Poverty Alleviation in China: A Typology of Official–Household Relations," Progress in Development Studies, , vol. 21(3), pages 244-263, July.
    2. Lugo, Maria Ana & Niu, Chiyu & Yemtsov, Ruslan, 2021. "Rural Poverty Reduction and Economic Transformation in China: A Decomposition Approach," SocArXiv 8rbgw, Center for Open Science.
    3. Genqiang Lei & Xiaohong Huang & Penghui Xi, 2016. "The impact of transfer payments on urban-rural income gap: based on fuzzy RD analysis of China’s midwestern county data," China Finance and Economic Review, Springer, vol. 4(1), pages 1-17, December.
    4. Zhineng Hu & Jing Ma & Qiong Feng & C. Patrick Scott & Hani I. Mesak, 2022. "The detection dilemma of marginally non‐poor households in poverty alleviation evaluation: Evidence from a linear quantile mixed model," Review of Development Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 26(3), pages 1491-1517, August.
    5. Yong Qin & Yingfeng Fang, 2022. "The Effects of E‐Commerce on Regional Poverty Reduction: Evidence from China's Rural E‐Commerce Demonstration County Program," China & World Economy, Institute of World Economics and Politics, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, vol. 30(3), pages 161-186, May.
    6. Junxue Jia & Cong Qin & Yongzheng Liu, 2017. "Do Community-Based Development Projects Alleviate Poverty? Evidence from Rural China," International Center for Public Policy Working Paper Series, at AYSPS, GSU paper1722, International Center for Public Policy, Andrew Young School of Policy Studies, Georgia State University.
    7. Zhe Sun & Liang Zhao & Shuyue Wang & Hongyin Zhang & Xinyu Wang & Zherui Wan, 2021. "Targeted Poverty Alleviation and Households’ Livelihood Strategy in a Relation-Based Society: Evidence from Northeast China," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(4), pages 1-18, February.
    8. Xuechao Li & Yaxuan Luo & Huijuan Wang, 2023. "Effects of Targeted Poverty Alleviation on the Sustainable Livelihood of Poor Farmers," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(7), pages 1-21, April.
    9. Guo, Junping & Qu, Song & Zhu, Tiehui, 2022. "Estimating China’s relative and multidimensional Poverty: Evidence from micro-level data of 6145 rural households," World Development Perspectives, Elsevier, vol. 26(C).
    10. Guo, Junping & Qu, Song, 2021. "Multidimensional and Relative Poverty in Rural China: Evidence from Micro-Level Data of 6145 Households," 2021 Conference, August 17-31, 2021, Virtual 315040, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    11. Cong Qin & Terence Tai Leung Chong, 2018. "Can Poverty be Alleviated in China?," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 64(1), pages 192-212, March.
    12. Luo, Jay, 2019. "Poverty alleviation research in rural China: Three decades and counting," SocArXiv gmuav, Center for Open Science.
    13. Yingfeng Fang & Fen Zhang, 2021. "The Future Path To China’s Poverty Reduction—Dynamic Decomposition Analysis With The Evolution Of China’s Poverty Reduction Policies," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 158(2), pages 507-538, December.
    14. Junying Lin & Zhonggen Zhang & Lingli Lv, 2019. "The Impact of Program Participation on Rural Household Income: Evidence from China’s Whole Village Poverty Alleviation Program," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(6), pages 1-15, March.
    15. Du, Yimeng & Takeuchi, Kenji, 2019. "Can climate mitigation help the poor? Measuring impacts of the CDM in rural China," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 95(C), pages 178-197.
    16. Hongliang Wang & Yiwen Yu, 2016. "Increasing health inequality in China: An empirical study with ordinal data," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 14(1), pages 41-61, March.
    17. Douglas Almond & Yuyu Chen & Michael Greenstone & Hongbin Li, 2009. "Winter Heating or Clean Air? Unintended Impacts of China's Huai River Policy," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 99(2), pages 184-190, May.
    18. Chen Yu, 2020. "Targeted industrial poverty alleviation in China’s Rural Areas: Evidence From Yulin Township," Journal of Advances in Humanities and Social Sciences, Dr. Yi-Hsing Hsieh, vol. 6(2), pages 78-88.
    19. Bjorn A Gustafsson & Deng Quheng, 2011. "Di Bao Receipt and Its Importance for Combating Poverty in Urban China," Poverty & Public Policy, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 3(1), pages 1-32, March.
    20. Chloé Duvivier Duvivier & Mary-Françoise Renard & Shi Li, 2012. "Are workers close to cities paid higher non-agricultural wages in rural China?," CERDI Working papers halshs-00673698, HAL.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:devpol:v:38:y:2020:i:5:p:541-554. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/odioruk.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.