1.3 The State Seven-Year Poverty Alleviation Program （1994-2000）

The previous 8 years’ poverty alleviation work contributed to a further decrease of the rural poor China，which，at the same time，made poverty reduction increasingly challenging.If no special measures had been adopted，the goal described in the 7th Five-Year Plan to solve people’s problem of food and clothing might have been missed.In 1994，the central government introduced the State Seven-Year Poverty Alleviation Program （1994-2000），striving to basically resolving the problem of inadequate food and clothes for 80 million rural residents within about seven years.This is the first poverty alleviation program with clear and specific goals in China’s history.