The State Council has released a poverty alleviation plan for the 13th Five-Year Plan period from 2016 to 2020. During the last five years, China's poverty rate fell from around 17 percent to around 6 percent. And by 2015, China still had over 56 million people below the national poverty line which is 2,800 yuan per year.

People living in poverty are scattered among 128,000 poor villages and over 800 poor counties across the country. In the plan, China will improve poverty-stricken areas and lift all of their poor out of poverty by 2020, ensuring people have enough to eat and wear, adequate education, health services and housing.