This book offers a comprehensive and authoritative account of China’s development-oriented and targeted poverty alleviation, charting its evolution from early policy exploration to the historic elimination of absolute poverty. Integrating historical analysis, policy design, practical implementation, and theoretical reflection, it presents a holistic picture of how poverty reduction was transformed into a systematic governance endeavor.

This book traces the shift from poverty alleviation as an “important agenda” to a “central task,” examining the institutional frameworks and policy measures that drove rapid income growth, strengthened food security, improved infrastructure, and dramatically enhanced living conditions in poor areas. At its core is an in-depth analysis of targeted poverty alleviation, detailing how precise identification, dynamic management, clearly defined responsibilities, and data-driven oversight translated policy goals into effective, measurable outcomes.

Beyond material achievements, this book highlights broader impacts on rural governance, endogenous development capacity, cadre–masses relations, and long-term rural revitalization. It distills key experiences and governance principles while situating China’s poverty alleviation practice within global theoretical debates.

By presenting China’s poverty alleviation as both a practical success and a coherent development paradigm, this book offers valuable insights for scholars, policymakers, and development practitioners worldwide.

Baohua Zheng, Han Chinese, was born in August 1964 in Qujing, Yunnan Province. He is a research fellow at the Rural Development Institute of the Yunnan Academy of Social Sciences. Zheng graduated from the Department of Economics at Yunnan University in 1986, where he majored in economics. His primary research interests lie in the sociology of rural development, with a particular focus on community development, social forestry, natural resource management, land tenure, sustainable development, the utilization of indigenous knowledge, and gender issues in rural society. He is a recipient of special allowances from the Yunnan Provincial People’s Government in recognition of his academic contributions.