"A war we can't afford to lose"

Von Armut in China handelt ein ziemlich spannender Beitrag aus Xinhua. "According to the United Nations' standard of one dollar per person each day, the nation still has 150 million people under the poverty line." (International werden seit einigen Jahren allerdings 1,25 US-Dollar angesetzt.)

Der Kommentar enthält einen Hinweis darauf, dass die nationale Armutsgrenze in 2011 von 1.196 Yuan (183 US-Dollar) auf 1.500 Yuan (229 US-Dollar) Jahreseinkommen (!) angehoben werden soll. Aber: "Raising the poverty line to this level would lead to a dramatic rise in the number of poor in the country. And doing so would highlight another issue. This group of people should have been seen earlier."

Zudem wird kritisiert: "The official poverty line has not kept pace with consumer price inflation. It has been estimated that in 2000 this caused the poverty line to be at least 13 percent lower than in the mid-1980s."

Und zum 10-Jahres-Plan des Staatsrates zur Armutsbekämpfung heißt es: "One of its most urgent tasks should be to address child malnutrition."