With Higher Poverty Line, Antipoverty Funds Reconfigured

(Beijing)—Chinese officials are altering their perspective on poverty.

With a revised poverty line quadrupling the population of Chinese deemed "impoverished," officials are also reconfiguring how they collect revenue for poverty alleviation funds. 

The new standard of 2,300 yuan net annual income—an 80 percent increase over the 2010 figure of 1,274 yuan—means that the Chinese government will shore up more financing for the 120 million people in total who are now eligible for antipoverty subsidies, Beijing Normal University Professor Li Shi said.