China’s anti-poverty drive is not disinterested charity

STRIVING TO OBEY an order from President Xi Jinping—namely, that extreme poverty must be eliminated in China by the end of 2020—officials have given many things to Jizi Arimo, a 47-year-old widow and mother of four. Chaguan met Ms Jizi last week in a newly built apartment block in Yuexi, a once-remote rural county in the south-western province of Sichuan.

One way to tell Ms Jizi’s story is with economic statistics. In her old home, high in the mountains, she was officially deemed impoverished. The poverty line varies a bit by region, but is currently around 4,000 yuan ($590) a year. As this year began, roughly 5m Chinese still needed to cross that line for Mr Xi’s promise to be kept. Officials in Sichuan paid the lion’s share of the costs of Ms Jizi’s relocation, and now employ her as a cleaner at her housing complex, paying her 550 yuan a month.