Rural Poverty and the Reconstruction of the RuralSocial Security System in China

Xu Yuebin* Liu Fengqin* and Zhang Xiulan*

本文利用２００４年农村住户问卷调查数据分析中国农村贫困人口的特征和致贫因素。调查结果显示，缺少劳动力、残疾患病以及家庭依赖成员多是农村贫困家庭的一些显著特征，而农村社会救助制度则由于资金的制约效果有限。文章认为，基于经济体制改革的激励作用和开发式扶贫的农村反贫困政策已经很难惠及这部分贫困人口，中国农村的反贫困政策需要在增加中央转移支付的基础上，以建立一个覆盖全部农村人口的医疗保障制度为优先发展的方向，在此基础上实施针对绝对贫困人口的社会救助制度。

I.Problem and Background

This paper makes use of the data fromthe rural household survey of 2004 to ana-lyze the characteristics of the poor in ruralChina and the factors causing poverty. Sincethe initiation of reform, the number of thosein absolute poverty in rural areas has fallenfrom 250 million in 1978 to 23.65 million in2005, with a corresponding fall in the oc-currence of poverty from 30.7% to 2.5%.China’s success in rural poverty reductionhas drawn world attention. This successarose mainly from the reform of the eco-nomic system and development-orientedanti-poverty strategies. Economic reform notonly directly increased farmers’ agriculturalincome, but also made it possible for largenumbers of them to gain work in the cities;such work is their main route out of poverty.Development-oriented poverty alleviationstarted in China in the mid-1980s with the

utilization of rural resources and improve-ment of rural infrastructure. This strategy,which combined rural development withstrengthening the labor and development ca-pabilities of poor households, played an im-portant role in reducing rural poverty.However, despite a large reduction in ruralpoverty, the geographical distribution of therural poor shows a pattern of “pockets ofrelative concentration across the wholecountry.”1 Evidently, in these circumstancesit is difficult for development-oriented pov-erty alleviation founded on regional develop-ment to cover these scattered groups, andthis is another major reason why poverty alle-viation has slowed down over recent years.2Recently, with the raising of the objective ofbuilding a harmonious society, establishingand perfecting a rural social security systemhas once again been put on the government’sagenda. While continuing to pursue devel-opment-oriented poverty alleviation, the gov-