The Chinese Ministry of Civil Affairs recently issued a notice requiring local authorities to strengthen the identification and dynamic monitoring of low-income populations. Experts believe that the Chinese Communist Party’s data on low-income populations, including previous poverty alleviation data, are all questionable. The establishment of the low-income population surveillance system by the CCP is also seen as a necessity for maintaining political stability.
According to the official announcement on May 6th, the Ministry of Civil Affairs has requested local authorities to enhance the identification and dynamic monitoring of low-income populations.
Individuals to be identified include those eligible for minimum living assistance, people in special difficulties, families on the edge of minimum living support, and families with difficulty meeting essential expenses. The official document emphasizes the strengthening of dynamic monitoring of low-income populations with the goal of “preventing risks.”
The document does not specify the standards for defining low-income.
In January 2022, the Ministry of Civil Affairs of the CCP stated that by the end of 2021, a database of over 58 million low-income individuals had been established nationwide. By October 2023, the Ministry announced that the national dynamic monitoring information platform for low-income populations had collected basic information on over 66 million low-income individuals, accounting for approximately 4.7% of the total population.
Chinese issues expert Wang He has raised doubts about the CCP’s data. He stated to Epoch Times, “According to the CCP’s official figures, the number of low-income people in 2021 was 58 million. After the (COVID-19) pandemic, it increased by 8 million to 66 million. The question is whether China really only has 66 million low-income individuals.”
Lai Rongwei, Executive Director of the Taiwan Inspiration Association, told Epoch Times that the CCP manipulates data in monitoring low-income populations, but the increasing numbers confirm a serious economic decline in China. Families who were previously considered middle class or relatively well-off now have lower incomes.
The CCP’s “achievements” in poverty alleviation have long been under scrutiny.
In early 2021, Chinese leader Xi Jinping declared a “comprehensive victory in the battle against poverty,” claiming to have achieved a “miracle on earth.” According to CCP’s official statements at that time, “under the current criteria, 98.99 million poor people in rural areas have all been lifted out of poverty.”
As previously reported by Epoch Times, the poverty alleviation standards set by the CCP equate “escaping poverty” with an individual having an annual income of 4,000 yuan. However, according to data published by the World Bank in 2018, living below $5.5 per day is considered the poverty line, along with extreme poverty lines of $3.2 and $1.9 per day. Calculated based on the extreme poverty line of $1.9 per day, the annual living expenses would be around $693.5, equivalent to approximately 4,500 yuan, still exceeding the CCP’s poverty line by about 12%.
In the fall of 2022, the World Bank raised the international extreme poverty line to $2.15, requiring annual living expenses of $784.7, equivalent to about 5,658 yuan.
China is classified as an upper-middle-income country internationally. On November 1, 2018, World Bank President Jim Yong Kim mentioned during a poverty alleviation forum of the CCP that based on the recommendations of the Global Poverty Commission, two new standards are being used to measure poverty in China: one at $3.2 per day—a typical poverty rate for lower-middle-income countries, with 7% of China’s population, or 96 million people, living below this standard; the other at $5.5 per day—a typical poverty rate for upper-middle-income countries, with 27.2% of China’s population, or 373 million people, living below this poverty line.
Epoch Times discovered that according to the latter standard provided by the World Bank, $5.5 per person per day, annual expenses would be $2,007.5, equivalent to about 14,474 yuan, or approximately 1,200 yuan per month. This aligns closely with the standard publicly acknowledged by former CCP Premier Li Keqiang in May 2020, stating that 600 million Chinese people have a monthly income of only around 1,000 yuan, nearly doubling the figure reported by the World Bank.
In May 2020, during a session of the National People’s Congress, Former CCP Premier Li Keqiang stated, “There are around 600 million people in China with low to middle incomes, and their average monthly income is about 1,000 yuan.” This statement caused a stir, leading to doubts about Xi Jinping’s subsequent declaration of a “comprehensive victory in poverty alleviation.” Lai Rongwei expressed that indeed, people are more inclined to believe what Li Keqiang stated rather than Xi Jinping.
Wang He mentioned that the extensive low-income population in China is essentially ignored by the CCP, which is now attempting to cover up the true situation through various means.
According to the CCP’s official definition, “low-income support” refers to a social assistance system that provides minimum living support to households where the per capita income of family members living together is below the local minimum living standard and meets the property conditions of low-income support families as stipulated by local policies.
The official source states that the low-income support standards vary across the country. Authorities assess and formulate low-income support criteria based on residents’ income and expenditure data and local market price levels. Applications for low-income support are generally submitted to the township or street office where the household is registered.
The CCP had established a system to monitor the national low-income population in 2021, but in early 2022, the incident of the “woman in an iron chain” exposed that many genuinely needy individuals in rural China were not receiving assistance.
In April of this year, the case of three children locked in a home full of feces in Hainan came to light. The father of these children was in prison, and the mother, busy with work, had no choice but to lock the children at home.
Moreover, instances of falsification and corruption in low-income support have been exposed in recent years, with some recipients of low-income support turning out to be affluent individuals.
Wang He mentioned that while the low-income support system of the CCP was originally meant to be lifesaving, corruption is rampant within the CCP. “The determination of low-income support belongs to the township level, which is essentially controlled by the underworld in the CCP, so when it comes to financial subsidies, it ends up in their own pockets.”
Lai Rongwei added that corruption exists from the central to local levels within the CCP. Grassroots officials who oversee ordinary people often resort to falsifying information to obtain money. “Many low-income households end up not receiving assistance, as officials give money to farmers but pocket some themselves. This leaves the farmers in great distress, making the CCP’s poverty alleviation movement absurd.”
Many overseas media outlets believe that the CCP’s establishment of a surveillance system for low-income populations is driven by the party’s need for political stability.
Wang He stated that if people cannot survive, they will revolt. Thus, the CCP tightly controls society and implements various measures, including the low-income support system, to maintain stability.
Lai Rongwei mentioned that migrant workers who cannot find jobs in cities and struggle to feed themselves may become discontented and even form connections with each other. The CCP has been introducing various methods to maintain stability, including providing low-income support, under the guise of assisting those with low incomes, when in reality, it’s a strong concept of stability maintenance.