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ABSTRACT China eradicated rural extreme poverty in 2020 after an 8‐year campaign that combined endogenous economic development involving local people with social assistance. Ethnographic research in a village in southwest China reports township officials, under‐resourced and pressed by higher tiers of government to meet the poverty‐eradication target, commissioning an entrepreneur as a policy‐broker. The latter established enterprises nominally to provide local employment, while seeking profitability from their investment. Prioritising poverty eradication over sustainability, government subsidies were employed to engineer income transfers lifting villagers out of poverty by the target date. Thereafter, transfers of income from the enterprises to impoverished people were at best irregular. The experience highlights the distorting effect of policy targets and the limits to endogenous development undertaken under time–pressure with villagers neither consulted nor benefiting from new employment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Poverty alleviation through relocation (PAR) is a milestone project in winning the battle against extreme poverty. Its aim is to relocate poor people from inhospitable areas and lift them out of poverty. Assessing the vulnerability to multidimensional poverty (VMP) of relocated households is of great significance for consolidating the achievements of targeted poverty alleviation and preventing a large-scale return to poverty. This study constructed a multidimensional poverty index (MPI) of relocated households and analyzed relocated households' VMP and its influencing factors using panel data of 1009 households in 16 counties across eight provinces in China. The results reveal that the mean VMP of the relocated households gradually decreased from 2016 to 2020. Moreover, the VMP of the relocated households that have moved into centralized resettlement communities is relatively low compared to those that have moved into decentralized resettlement communities. In addition, the impact of household endowment on VMP is the highest, followed by supporting policies, such as PAR, industrial development, and employment policy. Therefore, the assistance mechanism must be improved to prevent a return to poverty, enhance the sustainable development capacity of relocated households, and optimize follow-up policies for PAR. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The high cost of medical care and its association with poverty have given rise to a growing concern for developing countries, but how insurance plans affect household income and alleviate poverty has been rarely discussed. This study aims to bridge this research gap by examining a medical insurance reform in China, a major program of the targeted poverty alleviation (TPA) strategy, which offers higher reimbursement rates and lower medical deductibles for low‐income households. We use an administrative data set on impoverished people in a Chinese county to examine how exogenous changes in the medical insurance system affect the income structure of low‐income households. We apply a two‐part model to a Difference‐in‐Differences framework, with households that received reimbursement of the insurance reform as the treatment group and others as the control group. Our results imply that the medical insurance reform could increase the overall household income diversity. The mechanism analysis suggests that the medical insurance reform improves the health conditions of patients and encourages caregivers to engage more in off‐farm work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Extant studies have deployed variable-centered methods to examine predictors of children's nutritional status, and few focus on the double burden of malnutrition among young Chinese children. This paper adopts a person-centered approach and leverages data from large samples of Chinese families (the China Health and Nutrition Survey, CHNS 2004–2015, and China Family Panel Studies, CFPS 2010–2018) to examine trends in the prevalence of stunting, overweight, and stuntingoverweight in early childhood. We developed a hierarchical structure of socioeconomic indicators, including region (Eastern-Central-Western), urbanicity (urban-rural), and family socioeconomic status gradient (four quartiles). We assessed relative risks for malnutrition for 24 subgroups of children from varying socioeconomic strata. Results indicate that the prevalence of stunting decreased consistently while the prevalence of being overweight increased first, followed by a decreasing trend. Moreover, a small group of stuntedoverweight children (4.7%) was identified. Data from the CHNS indicated that children from affluent families in the Central region were prone to being overweight. Data from the CFPS indicate that underprivileged groups (children from poor rural families living in Western China) were at higher risk for both undernutrition and overnutrition than their more advantaged peers. The findings suggest that children in poor, rural areas in Western China should be targeted for malnutrition alleviation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Representations of Christianity in contemporary Chinese cinema are very limited, making the scholarship of this subject underexplored. Filmmaker Gan Xiao'er has made three feature-length independent films focusing on Christianity in China. These films, The Only Sons (2003), Raised from Dust (2007), and Waiting for God (2012), are used for case studies, with close analyses of their narratives and formal elements. They are also examined in the social and cultural contexts of postsocialist China. This article argues that Gan's religious features are significant in the context of postsocialist Chinese cinema. They not only depict the religious experience of Chinese Christians, which has been under-represented cinematically, but also provide a religious critique rarely seen in Chinese films. On the one hand, these films critically engage with the experience of underprivileged people during the Reform period, when economic development and materialism became dominant, while the socialist political system remained. Gan's religious features provide an alternative perspective that cares for people's spiritual needs. On the other hand, Gan's later films interrogate the local religious institution in China, questioning the arbitrary separation of the 'holy' and the 'unholy', proposing a more inclusive approach to the religious concept of love. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study takes China's one‐child policy (OCP)—a widely known policy intervention for family planning—as an example to illustrate that an income‐based penalty scheme for above‐quota births may cause fertility inequality. A couple can legally have only one child under the OCP, and those who exceed the quota are subject to fines. To ensure that this penalty scheme does not biasedly affect only low‐income people who are relatively more sensitive to fines of a certain amount, it was designed to be income‐based, which makes the perceived cost of the rich equal to that of the poor. However, we find that due to the limited liability nature of the financial penalty, it unintentionally created fertility inequality that favors the poor. Relying on city‐year‐level panel data, we find that this mechanism partly explains the lower birth rates in rich cities in the OCP era; the gap narrowed rapidly after the OCP abolition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This study aimed to investigate awareness of tuberculosis control among post-treatment tuberculosis patients, in order to provide a basis for future preventive and control work in this population. Patients and Methods: A cross-sectional descriptive study was conducted on post-treatment patients with tuberculosis in seven districts of Jinan City between July 2021 and December 2022. A face-to-face or telephone interviews using structured questionnaires for the research subjects were conducted by data collectors. Analyses were carried out first for all subjects, and then separately for male and female subjects. Results: A total of 837 valid questionnaires were collected, of which 495 were males and 342 were females. The awareness rate of the core TB knowledge was 82.46%. The ≥ 65 year group in the total group (OR=0.43, 95% CI: (0.28, 0.68)), male (OR=0.47, 95% CI: (0.27, 0.83)) and female group (OR=0.40, 95% CI: (0.19, 0.86)) was lower than that of the control group. Educational level and monthly income are the main factors of TB cognition in total group. People with university or higher education (OR=2.05, 95% CI: (1.38, 3.05)) and with a monthly income of ≥ 6,000 (OR=1.89, 95% CI: (1.10, 3.25)) had a higher awareness rate. The group with current residence in the city was more aware than the reference group. Conclusion: In the future, the communication of the main transmission route, suspicious symptoms, and cure of TB needs to be strengthened for the post-treatment TB patients. The elderly, those with secondary school education or below, agricultural workers and low-income people are the groups with weak knowledge of TB, and they are also the groups that need to be focused on health education. The above information should be focused on the above groups of people in order to educate them in a way that is easily acceptable to them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Poor access to modern energy services, or energy poverty, continues to be a significant barrier to socioeconomic progress and well-being. The complicated connections between public investment, incentives, supplier chains, and the financial success of energy poverty alleviation efforts are explored in this paper. This research examines the history of eradicating energy poverty worldwide, particularly in China. It examines how these aspects affect the efficiency and long-term viability of reducing energy poverty initiatives. This research synthesizes the evidence on government expenditure patterns and their impact on initiatives to reduce energy poverty via an extensive literature examination. The development of infrastructure, capacity building, and the deployment of energy technology are all made possible in large part by government spending. Financial and regulatory incentives have also been shown to encourage the energy industry's private sector engagement and innovation. These incentives help expand underprivileged groups' access to electricity by creating an atmosphere conducive to investment. This research also examines supply chains' crucial role in combating energy poverty. For the effective installation and upkeep of energy projects, efficient and resilient supply chains are crucial because they guarantee the availability of vital materials and resources. An integrated supply chain strategy may improve project results, save costs, and eliminate risks related to logistical difficulties. Government funding, incentives, and supply chains all have a connection that affects how well energy poverty alleviation programs function financially. Maintaining projects after their first execution requires sustained financial performance. It explores how supply network interruptions may affect financial performance, highlighting the need for robust supply chain management techniques. As a result, this study adds to a comprehensive knowledge of the complex processes underpinning the reduction of energy poverty. It offers insights into developing efficient policies and strategies by examining how government actions, incentives, supply chains, and financial performance interact. These observations are relevant for practitioners, investors, and academics trying to increase access to sustainable energy sources and reduce poverty in addition to policymakers. This report provides helpful recommendations for boosting the effectiveness and endurance of energy poverty reduction activities as nations work to reach global sustainable development objectives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The monocytes to high-density lipoprotein cholesterol ratio (MHR) has been identified as a potential biomarker for cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases. In this population-based cross-sectional study, we explored the relationships among carotid artery disease (CAD), including the presence of carotid atherosclerotic plaque (CAP) and carotid artery intima-media thickness (CIMT), the MHR, and related parameter changes. Methods: This cross-sectional study, Conducted from April to June 2019 in a rural area of Tianjin, involved middle-aged and elderly participants. Based on carotid ultrasound examinations, participants were divided into CAP and non-CAP groups. Logistic regression and Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) curve analyses were utilized to assess MHR's predictive value for CAP. Gender-specific analyses were also performed to examine predictive variations. The relationship between CIMT and MHR was evaluated using linear regression. Results: Of the 2109 participants meeting the inclusion criteria, 51.6% were identified with CAP. Multivariate analysis revealed a significant association between MHR and CAP prevalence, (OR, 9.670; 95% CI, 2.359–39.631; P = 0.002), particularly in females (OR, 5.921; 95% CI, 1.823–19.231; P = 0.003), after adjusting for covariates. However, no significant correlation was found between CIMT and MHR when adjusted for other factors. The ROC analysis showed the area under the curve for MHR and CAP to be 0.569 (95% CI: 0.544–0.593; P < 0.001). Conclusions: These findings suggested that it is crucial to enhance early screening and intervention for CAD, specifically focusing on the prevention and progression of CAP, to address the unique health challenges faced by low-income groups in rural settings. Emphasizing these preventive measures could significantly contribute to improving cardiovascular health outcomes in this vulnerable population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Transfer payments play a crucial role in combating poverty in countries. However, the effectiveness of transfer payments in alleviating poverty remains controversial due to variations in environmental factors, economic development, and cultural contexts across different nations. In this study, we employ counterfactual causal inference to examine the influence of government transfer payments on poverty. By utilizing data from China, we present new evidence that sheds light on related issues. Our findings reveal that transfer payments have a negative impact on the overall income of rural poor households. This can be attributed to a decrease in labor supply among rural poor residents who receive such payments, resulting in reduced wage income. Additionally, transfer payments lead to decreased expenditure on food and increased spending on healthcare. These changes in total income and consumption patterns indicate that China's current transfer payment policy has short-term efficacy by meeting the basic living security needs of rural poor residents and improving their health conditions. However, the lack of significant changes in education spending suggests that transfer payments have little long-term effect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Gift-giving consumption is an important part of household consumption and is closely linked to people's welfare, particularly in rural China. By employing data from the China Family Panel Studies, this study investigates whether and how household gift-giving consumption affects subjective well-being in rural China. The findings suggest that such consumption has a significant and positive effect on the subjective well-being of rural residents in China, and social trust mediates the relationship between household gift-giving consumption and subjective well-being. Furthermore, the study conducts a robustness analysis based on various age and income groups, and the results demonstrate that gift-giving consumption has a significant positive effect on the subjective well-being of younger people, but no significant effect on the subjective well-being of middle-aged and elderly people. In addition, household gift-giving consumption significantly improves the subjective well-being of low-income people in rural China, but it does not have a statistically significant effect on high-income people. The findings of this study have some implications for policymakers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study constructs a panel extended linear expenditure system (ELES) model that includes the theory of internal habit formation and expands the theoretical connotation of the original model. It also decomposes the dynamic evolution characteristics of Chinese urban residents' psychological and physiological needs among various consumption expenditures. It explains the partial causes of the time effect in the panel ELES model from consumer behaviour. We have obtained the following innovative conclusions after the empirical analysis of urban residents' consumption behaviour in different regions of China. First, urban residents have habit formation effects on seven types of consumption expenditure. Second, the timeliness of the psychological needs of various commodity expenditures differs between the eastern and mid-western region of China, and this difference has expanded since 2013. The COVID-19 pandemic has reduced the psychological needs for various commodity expenditures while having little impact on physiological needs. Finally, the study puts forward some policy recommendations, such as tapping the potential of commodity consumption with psychological needs growth, further enhance the cultivation of low-income people's consumption in the mid-western region, and implementing more detailed consumption supports with different regions' consumption preferences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The quality of travel for residents has improved in China's urban renewal development, but there are still barriers to the activities of disadvantaged groups like people with disabilities in the city, including challenges with accessible travel and a lack of accessible design. All urban people should have access to services and be guaranteed equal rights, according to the inclusive development theory. This study examines the travel requirements and behavioural patterns of the barrier-free groups to safeguard the right of underprivileged groups to participate equally in the urban space. It also determines the impact of various types of urban land use and service facilities on the distribution of barrier-free facilities. An evaluation system based on the needs of the disabled group is established to evaluate the degree of barrier-free facilities in the surveyed areas, summarise the problems shown by the evaluation scores, and propose improvement strategies for the shortcomings of accessibility to residential areas and the controversy through web data crawling and a geographically weighted analysis. From the standpoint of inclusive development, the goal is to lessen the travel issues faced by underprivileged groups and to improve their capacity to take advantage of opportunities and have access to resources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Arable land resources are the basic livelihood security for people in poverty-stricken areas, and poor people are prone to uncontrolled expansion of arable land and exogenous ecological damage to secure their livelihoods. To avoid this vicious cycle, China's poverty eradication policy requires greater management and restoration of arable land in poverty-stricken areas, but it is unknown what impacts it may bring. Therefore, this study examines the impact of policy implementation on arable land by the Difference-in-Differences (DID) model and uses the mediating and moderating models to test the policy's mechanism on arable land. The results reveal that the policy significantly reduces the arable land, and the results remain robust, controlling for potential endogeneity variables and robustness tests. What's more, the results of the mediating and moderating effect models indicate that the reduction of arable land is mainly due to the increase of unit yield, guiding the local people to abandon degraded land and to carry out ecological restoration, thus reducing the arable land area and achieving sustainable development. Finally, recommendations are proposed from the perspective of human-land coordination. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is often a vicious cycle that occurs in China encompassing ecological vulnerability, low productivity, and poverty. Existing research has not applied multiagent modelling and simulation (MAMS), which is a method suitable for analysing such complex systems. Therefore, the MAMS is here used to explore potential strategies for breaking this cycle. The MAMS method is based on complex adaptive systems and computer programs, and it includes both theoretical and simulation models, which can be used to simulate different scenarios and obtain visualized results. To sample representative poverty-stricken areas in China, the authors designed five breakthrough policy scenarios. The simulation results of these scenarios indicate that increasing the amount of arable land decreases the number of poor people. However, increasing the direct interventions of government does not reduce the number of the poor, nor does it change the Gini coefficient. On the other hand, increasing the number and variety of poverty alleviation opportunities available to the poor leads to a decrease in both the number of poor people and the Gini coefficient. These results of our five scenarios indicate that the optimal policy portfolio could be obtained by increasing the amount of arable land and providing more varied opportunities to help the poor participate in market activities while reducing direct government intervention. The combined design of these policies is conducive to breaking the vicious cycle of poverty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

After eradicating absolute poverty under the current rural poverty standard (living standard of 2300 RMB per person per year at 2010 constant prices) in 2020, China will enter the post-poverty era, in which the focus of anti-poverty in China will shift to narrowing the gap and pursuing fairness and shared prosperity in relative poverty. Identifying and measuring the scale of the relative poverty group is an essential prerequisite for effective relative poverty management. Based on the reality of China's extensive territory and unbalanced and uncoordinated regional development, this article calculates the relative poverty and the scale of the poor population in each province separately from the provincial perspective and analyzes their changing trends. It is revealed that the average relative poverty line of each province in China is slightly lower than the social poverty line of middle and high-income countries proposed by the World Bank and higher than the low- and middle-income countries, which is basically in line with the current stage of economic development in China. The average relative poverty incidence in each province is at around 25%, and the incidence of poverty generally shows a decreasing trend during the study period, while the depth and intensity of poverty in some provinces show a gradual increase over time, further confirming the enormity of relative poverty governance in the post-poverty era. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article traces the rise of a Pure Land movement in twentieth-century China and the canonization of its leader, Monk Yinguang, as a patriarch and an emanation of Bodhisattva Great Power, one of the two bodhisattvas flanking Buddha Amitābha in the Western Pure Land. Although scholars have long recognized this influential tradition of practice, its lack of institutions such as direct master-disciple transmission has posed methodological challenges to the study of this distinct yet decentralized Buddhist tradition. How has this movement reproduced itself over the last century and around the globe? How do scholars make sense of the patriarchs of a tradition without lasting institutions? Using the materials collected by Yinguang's followers, this article uncovers the anchoring schemas that canonized Yinguang as the thirteenth Pure Land patriarch when China was plagued by war, poverty, and colonial intrusion. I argue that Yinguang's rise hinged crucially on a refashioning of the bodhisattva spirit as poor people's philanthropy (PPP). PPP's simple guidelines reformulated the premodern nonelite soteriology into a spiritual blueprint for commoners who wished to secure Great Power's protection through their daily pious actions and to establish local civil society organizations. In contrast to other movements that established centralized organizations, Yinguang's indifference toward institutionalization, far from being a disadvantage, opened up new possibilities. By disseminating ideas instead of institutions, PPP both remade Yinguang into a spiritual leader who transcended any particular organization and ensured that the flourishing of the movement was not tied to the success or failure of any particular group. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: To investigate the independent impact of threat-related and deprivation-related adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) on depressive symptoms among middle-aged and older adults, and to evaluate the moderating role of current economic status in these associations. Methods: This cross-sectional study included 11,048 participants aged ≥ 45 years from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study. We captured five threat-related ACEs and five deprivation-related ACEs by questionnaires. Depressive symptoms were assessed using the 10-item Centre for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale. Current economic status was reflected by annual per capita household consumption expenditure. We performed logistic regression analyses to evaluate the independent association of childhood threat and deprivation with depressive symptoms, and conducted stratified analyses and tests for interaction to explore the moderation effect of current economic status in such associations. Results: Compared with the nonexposed group, the experience of both childhood threat and deprivation were independently associated with greater risks of depressive symptoms later in life (odds ratio [OR] 1.75, 95% CI 1.49–2.05 for ≥ 2 threat-related ACEs; OR 2.02, 95% CI 1.67–2.43 for ≥ 2 deprivation-related ACEs). High current economic status significantly ameliorated the impact of childhood deprivation, but not threat, on depressive symptoms (P value for interaction 0.038). Conclusions: Both threat-related and deprivation-related ACEs were associated with the risk of depressive symptoms among middle-aged and older adults, while current economic status was a significant moderator in such risks only for childhood deprivation. The findings implied that prioritising targeted interventions for individuals with ACEs, especially for childhood deprivation victims who were economically disadvantaged in adulthood, may help mitigate depressive symptoms in later life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Purpose: Hearing loss (HL) is prevalent and relates to social health in old age. This study aims to examine the association between functional HL and social well-being (SWB) in older adults and to investigate whether psychological resilience mediates this association. Method: The analytical sample of 4,531 older adults aged ≥ 60 years was from the Sample Survey on Vulnerable Populations from Poor Families in Urban/ Rural China (2018). SWB was measured by social networks and social engagement using the Lubben Social Network Scale and Index of Social Engagement Scale, respectively. Functional hearing impairment was defined by a dichotomized measure of self-perceived hearing difficulty. Psychological resilience was assessed by a 25-item Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale. Structural equation modeling was performed to determine associations of HL with SWB and the mediating roles of psychological resilience. Results: Functional HL was associated with reduced SWB among older adults living in low-income households. Hearing-impaired individuals were more likely to be socially isolated and less socially engaged compared to those with normal hearing. The association persisted in gender subsamples and in non–lowincome households but not in older adults aged ≥ 70 years. Psychological resilience partially mediated the association of hearing impairment with SWB, accounting for 50.9% of the variance in the change of SWB. Conclusions: Functional hearing impairment may be a modifiable risk factor for social restrictions and downstream older adults’ health. Promotion of hearing health care and accessibility to coping resources including psychological support may improve social wellness among the older adults and benefit healthy aging. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rural mobility inequality is an important aspect of inequality-focused Sustainable Development Goals. To reduce inequality and promote global sustainable development, more insight is needed into human mobility patterns in rural areas. However, studies on rural human mobility are scarce, limiting our understanding of the spatial and social gaps in rural human mobility and our ability to design policies for social equality and global sustainable development. This study, therefore, explores human mobility patterns in rural China using mobile phone data. Mapping the relative frequency of short-distance trips across rural towns, we observed that geographically peripheral populations tend to have a low percentage of short-distance flows. We further revealed social gaps in mobility by fitting statistical models: as travel distances increased, human movements declined more rapidly among vulnerable groups, including children, older people, women, and low-income people. In addition, we found that people living with low street density, or in rural towns in peripheral cities with long distances to city borders, are more likely to have low intercity movement. Our results show that children, older adults, women, low-income individuals, and geographically peripheral populations in rural areas are mobility-disadvantaged, providing insights for policymakers and rural planners for achieving social equality by targeting the right groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Poverty alleviation through relocation (PAR) is a milestone project in winning the battle against extreme poverty and aims to relocate poor people from inhospitable areas and lift them out of poverty. The effect of PAR on poor households merits evaluation as it is also the basis for understanding the achievements of targeted poverty alleviation and preventing a large-scale return to poverty. This study analyzed the effect of PAR on poor households from the perspectives of income and multidimensional poverty, based on panel data of 1009 poor households from eight provinces in China. The results showed that the incidence of multidimensional poverty in poor households exceeded that of income poverty, and its decline was faster than that of income poverty. However, the overlap between multidimensional poverty and income poverty was low, at 26.3%, 4.9%, and 0% in 2016, 2018, and 2020, respectively. PAR showed a significantly negative effect on poor households' income and multidimensional poverty, and the longer the relocation time, the more significant the effect. PAR reduced the income poverty of poor households mainly by increasing their wage income and property income, and multidimensional poverty mainly by improving their living standards. The impact of PAR on income and multidimensional poverty is regional heterogeneous. Post-relocation measures should improve the income and capability of poor households through industrial development, employment assistance, infrastructure upgrades, and public service improvements. In addition, the income and multidimensional poverty standards should be jointly adopted in the governance of relative poverty. • This study assessed the impact of poverty alleviation through relocation on income and multidimensional poverty. • The overlap between multidimensional poverty and income poverty of poor households was low. • Poverty alleviation through relocation had a significantly negative impact on income and multidimensional poverty. • Poverty alleviation through relocation reduced the income poverty mainly by increasing wage income and property income. • Poverty alleviation through relocation reduced the multidimensional poverty mainly by improving living standards. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Originally, the establishment of peer-to-peer lending (P2P) helped poor people to solve short-term financial problems or had a charitable nature. Along with its development, it became a financial method that helps people invest. It has been developing rapidly in China since 2007 and was claimed as a Ponzi scheme since many investors have been deceived. That is, P2P in China is viewed more as a fraud rather than a formal financial method. Although some studies have explored the overall picture of P2P, this study filled the research gaps by i) using court cases and media reports for analysis, and ii) adopting trust theory and the concept of guanxi, to explore the trust relationship in the P2P. To investigate the process and mechanism in P2P, the present study aimed to examine the situation of P2P investment in China and the trust-building process between investors and P2P companies by using trust theory. A case study method was adopted using published court and media cases. A thematic analysis approach was used to analyse the data. The results demonstrate that investors were guaranteed high financial returns by the companies, and they profited from their initial investments. However, they were commonly deceived in subsequent investments after their trust in the P2P companies was established through the initial gain. The results also reveal a trust-building process between investors and P2P companies through the quality of search, experience and credence as adopted in trust theory. The study complements the trust theory with Chinese cultural concepts such as authority and guanxi and reveals how these are applied in Chinese business malpractices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To achieve a tiered healthcare system in China, the government has beefed up efforts to encourage people to embrace private health insurance. One of the steps is to introduce tax-subsidized health insurance (TSHI) in 2015. This paper assesses whether TSHI is successful in improving health and easing financial burden. Using unique data from the Domestic TSHI Consumers Evaluation Survey in 2019 and Propensity Score Matching method, we find that TSHI has been effective in improving participants' health status, but not in lowering out-of-pocket (OOP) burden. Besides, TSHI can increase the utilization of both inpatient and outpatient care, which provides a possible explanation for beneficial health effect. From an internal perspective, TSHI has the potential to reduce disparities in health and access to healthcare services. Our results provide implications on modifying the benefit design of TSHI to better complement basic medical insurance system and on reforming the current tax incentive policy to reach out a large number of low-income people. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Industrial poverty alleviation is a fundamental solution to achieve stable poverty alleviation for poor households, and is a fundamental guarantee to reduce poverty vulnerability and eliminate poverty-causing factors. This study selects data from the China Labor Force Dynamics Survey (CLDS), estimates poverty vulnerability using the vulnerability theory of expected poverty, and quantitatively analyzes the degree of impact of industrial poverty alleviation on poverty vulnerability by combining the double difference method and propensity score matching method. The results show that (1) from a prospective perspective, the implementation of industrial poverty alleviation policies reduces the poverty vulnerability of poor households by about 14%, lowering their likelihood of falling into poverty in the future; (2) in terms of regional location, industrial poverty alleviation improves the poverty vulnerability of poor households to a slightly higher extent in eastern China than in central and western China. Based on this, this study proposes relevant policy recommendations to provide implications for the next adjustment of industrial poverty alleviation policies and the effective implementation of rural revitalization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the impact of financial Inclusion on household poverty and vulnerability by constructing a household financial inclusion index using the China Household Finance Survey 2015. It is found that financial Inclusion significantly reduces the probability of poverty and vulnerability of households and has a more significant impact on vulnerable groups such as rural and urban low-income people. Further, financial Inclusion has a more significant effect on poor families that do not receive government support for poverty alleviation and can complement co-insurance mechanisms to help families better cope with vulnerabilities caused by synergistic community shocks. Finally, promoting entrepreneurship and improving risk management capabilities are the main channels of financial Inclusion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based upon thirteen months of ethnographic fieldwork in South China, this study employs Lauren Berlant's concept of cruel optimism to examine how Chinese rural migrant workers – an economically and culturally disadvantaged group – use digital dating services and select dates. It juxtaposes the rural migrant workers' encouraged engagement with digital dating with interview accounts which reveal that digital dating presents a large sum of obstacles to the fulfilment of sexual and romantic desire. Our research shows that these obstacles (both 'virtual' and 'real') are highly gendered, which is partly related to a cultural shift towards materialism in the Chinese society. Specifically, rural migrant men have described themselves as being harshly excluded or exploited on the dating scene, whereas rural migrant women have reported that they have unwittingly dated men with deceptive profiles or developed romantic relationships that were dashed by economic turmoil. Hence, the study empirically extends the literature on digital dating beyond its traditional focus on Western contexts. It also clearly demonstrates that, while digital dating ignites a sense of possibility and desire, particularly among individuals of lower socioeconomic status, it fails to support these users in tackling the structural inequalities obstructing realization of their desire. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The ecological environment is the basic condition for human survival and development. Maintaining a good rural ecological environment is the basis for ensuring the sustainable development of agriculture and the rural economy, and it is the fundamental guarantee for helping poor rural areas to get rid of poverty and become rich. To solve poverty by developing tourism, the so-called tourism poverty alleviation has been studied for many years in the theoretical circles at home and abroad. Therefore, this article conducts research on China's rural ecological environment management and poverty management based on big data deep learning, aiming to analyze the problems in China's rural ecoenvironmental management and the challenges facing rural poverty governance and explore a way to achieve sustainable rural economic development and farmers' poverty alleviation the best way. In the context of big data, environmental monitoring and governance have also ushered in innovative reforms. With the advantages of powerful information collection and data processing, big data provides comprehensive data and information support for environmental monitoring and governance. This article uses a survey method, data statistics method, literature analysis method, and case analysis method. Firstly, it briefly summarizes the main ecological and environmental problems and poverty management issues facing the rural areas of China. It then lists 5 successful poverty alleviation cases to investigate their poverty alleviation. The experience and methods of getting rich sum up the strategies that China can refer to for poverty alleviation. Finally, through the collection and compilation of online data, we have discovered the results achieved by China's poverty alleviation work in recent years, i.e., by the end of 2019, our rural poverty population has been reduced to 5.1 million. Compared with 2013, there has been a reduction of approximately 90 million (Fang, 2019), however, at the same time, China's poverty alleviation work has entered a stage of overcoming difficulties. The remaining poor people make it a long way to go. In short, improving the ecological environment to help rural poverty alleviation is a long-term people's livelihood project, and it is also a research topic of great social significance. For this reason, the research in this article has a certain reference value. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 1985, Yü Ying-shih wrote a poem honoring his mentor, the eminent historian Qian Mu, on the occasion of Qian's ninetieth birthday. Qian Mu offered that view in the introduction to his I General History of China i ( I Guoshi dagang i ), which Yü had read at Northeast Zhongzheng University in 1947 but first studied in depth with Qian Mu himself in 1950. Further reflection leads the reader to see how Yü's memoir resembles Qian Mu's, which was completed in Qian's eighty-eighth year ( I Shi you za yi i [Memories of Teachers and Friends]). [Extracted from the article]

With the advancement of marketization, China has achieved rapid economic growth and economic class differentiation. This research analyzes the data from China's livelihood survey, divides the urban Chinese into five socio-economic classes, and tests their preferences and tendencies for income redistribution. It obtains the general attitude differences in subsidy policy and income inequality during COVID-19. Our conclusion are consistent with the existing literature to a great extent; that is, personal factors (self-interest and belief in fairness) play a crucial role in the attitude of Chinese citizens. In the analysis of situational factors, the results show that the higher the level of marketization, the people are more likely to have stronger negative emotions about subsidy or redistribution policies. Further analysis shows that people with the lowest income are susceptible to the fact that income inequality has become significant and show a strong willingness to support the government's redistribution policy. In contrast, middle-class people tend to favor the government's redistribution policy, although they will not benefit much from the redistribution policy. Therefore, they lack the motivation to support the government in vigorously implementing the subsidy policy. Significantly, high-income people are indifferent, as they lack such motivation even more. The difference in redistribution preferences between upper-class and lower-class groups signals polarization in Chinese society, especially income redistribution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Studies show that parental educational expectations (PEEs) serve as an intermediary variable between family background and children's educational attainment. This paper re-examines the relationship between PEEs and children's higher educational attainment using data from the China Family Panel Studies (CFPS) 2010–2018. To address potential endogenous problems in the previous papers, we use the average College Enrolment Opportunity Index (CEOI) when the children were 10–12 years old as an instrumental variable for PEEs. The results revealed that: (1) In addition to the indirect intermediary effects, the PEEs also had a direct impact on children's higher educational attainment independent of family background; (2) the magnitude of the effect was much larger (almost three times) than previous estimates after solving endogenous problems; (3) there was no significant gender difference in the effect of PEEs. In addition, we also found that PEEs had a greater impact on middle- and low-income families. Therefore, we argue that against the background of the "Double Reduction" policy, parents should change their conception of education and raise their expectations for their children and encourage them to strive for higher educational achievements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Poverty alleviation by consumption is a powerful way to help the poor people get rid of poverty, which plays a significant role in China's rural revitalization. However, the achievement of poverty alleviation by consumption mostly depends on government procurement, and the enthusiasm of customers to participate is low, facing the severe challenge of poor sustainability. Helping the poor is the most common motivation for customers to buy poverty-alleviation agricultural products (PAAP). However, as the negative events of poverty alleviation such as "tragic marketing" constantly appear in news reports, customers' trust in sellers has been seriously damaged. The psychological protection system for fear of being cheated hinders customers' purchase intention. Therefore, we believed that trust is an important factor in enhancing customers' purchase intention of PAAP. Customers buy PAAP mainly through online channels, and institution-based trust is the most important way to generate trust in online channels. Thus, this study investigated the institutional mechanisms that affect customers' trust in the sellers of PAAP and discussed the influence of trust on the online purchase intention of PAAP. Data were obtained through a questionnaire survey and tested empirically. The results showed that the effectiveness of the user feedback mechanism, platform supervision mechanism, product traceability mechanism, and product certification mechanism can enhance customers' purchase intention by enhancing their trust. Individual trust tendency positively regulated the relationship between the effectiveness of institutional mechanisms and consumer trust. The conclusion can not only provide new theoretical guidance for the practice of poverty alleviation by consumption in China but also offer new ideas for the poverty alleviation undertakings in other countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background-Ecological poverty alleviation is China's key poverty alleviation measure in ecologically fragile mountain areas and poverty-stricken areas, and is an improvement in the comprehensive development of mountain areas. ⑵ Methods-By systematically combing the implementation effect, policy system and evolution of China's poverty alleviation policy, it is found that China's ecological poverty alleviation has formed a complete policy system including ecological industry, ecological migration, ecological compensation and ecological construction. (3) Results--China's ecological poverty alleviation has made remarkable achievements. By the end of 2020, China has established a pattern of ecological poverty alleviation with the central government as a whole, industry as the main driving force and local as the main implementation, and has fully completed the objectives and tasks of ecological poverty alleviation, helping more than 20 million poor people to get rid of poverty and increase income. Under the leadership of the Communist Party of China and the promotion of governments at all levels, China's ecological poverty alleviation has shown positive characteristics in terms of value orientation, target location and working mechanism. Each region has explored different ecological poverty alleviation models according to its own conditions. The practice and exploration of the national ecological poverty alleviation and sharing development demonstration area has achieved remarkable results. Anyuan model of "Internet + characteristic ecological industry poverty alleviation", Shangyou model of u ecological industry + ecological engineering poverty alleviation" and Suichuan model of "mechanism innovation + ecological value transformation" have emerged, and the ecological construction and maintenance of poor households has been constructed to increase income and carry out ecological restoration governance, realize the conversion of ecological value and promote the improvement of ecological quality. Ecological poverty alleviation has helped China eliminate absolute poverty, and regional overall poverty has been completely solved. After 2020, China has entered a period of comprehensively consolidating and expanding the achievements of poverty alleviation, and continuing to promote the development of poor areas and the comprehensive revitalization of rural areas. ⑷ Conclusions and Discussions--As China' s poverty-stricken areas that have been lifted out of poverty are highly overlapped with the distribution areas of ecological security barrier areas, ecological fragile areas, resource and environment sensitive areas and ecological protection and restoration projects, challenges and pressures are still existed in the process of consolidating and expanding the achievements of poverty alleviation, such as unbalanced economic and social development in poor areas, weak endogenous development momentum, weak infrastructure, and imperfect long-term mechanism. In order to consolidate and expand the achievements of ecological poverty alleviation, China needs to incorporate ecological poverty alleviation into the national medium and long term poverty alleviation and rural revitalization plan, improve the expansion mechanism of ecological poverty alleviation achievements, the realization mechanism of ecological product value, the coordination mechanism of ecological poverty alleviation and rural revitalization, and the co-construction and sharing mechanism of ecological poverty alleviation achievements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing from the professional experience of one "zhijiao" teacher in the southwestern border of China, this study uses a narrative method to describe and analyze the growth and development of an effective teacher serving in a rural and remote school with a high concentration of ethnic minority students. Qualitative data for this single case study were generated through interviews with the selected teacher and her colleagues and students. Specifically, the study examines the teacher's professional philosophy and beliefs, professional knowledge, and professional skills. It illustrates how these domains relate to the teacher's effectiveness. The study also discusses possibilities for better preparation and development of teachers serving the most disadvantaged areas in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This study aimed to assess the prevalence of depressive symptoms and ADL/IADL disabilities and explore their correlation and associated factors for depressive symptoms among community-dwelling older adults from low-income families in Dalian, Liaoning Province, China. Methods: This cross-sectional study included 522 participants aged 60 years and older from low-income families in Dalian. The 30-Item Geriatric Depression Scale was employed to measure depressive symptoms. The Katz ADL Scale and IADL Scale were used to evaluate the performance of activities necessary for independent life. SPSS 22.0 was employed to analyze the data. Logistic regression was used to estimate the relationship between depressive symptoms and ADL/IADL disabilities in five models. Results: The prevalence of depressive symptoms among older people from low-income families in Dalian was 57.3%. A total of 19.0% had difficulties performing ADLs, and 40.2% had difficulties performing IADLs. Logistic regression analysis revealed that ADL/IADL disabilities were associated with depressive symptoms even after controlling for people's sociodemographic characteristics, welfare, health conditions and informal care. The following factors were associated with depressive symptoms: education, self-reported health, number of chronic diseases, and emotional support from families. Conclusion: Given that older people from low-income families in Dalian have a notable prevalence rate of depressive symptoms, and ADL/IADL disabilities were independently associated with these symptoms, it is crucial to give priority to this particular group in geriatric health services due to economic and health disparities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Policymakers around the globe pursue welfare policies that combine equity and efficiency. In this context, the inequity of the benefit cliff and its suppressive effect on the workforce have become urgent issues. However, few studies have focused on marginalised impoverished (MI) groups (who are awkwardly situated and somewhat poor) or on the disparate effects of government concerns and the benefit cliff on land use across different low-income rural impoverished (RI) groups. In addition, few studies have examined subsequent changes in recipients' land use after poverty alleviation policies end in China. To bridge this gap, we scrutinised how government concerns and the changes they undergo cause land use divergence between RI and MI groups based on the economic model of the labour supply and behavioural economics theory. We used data from rural households in 21 national-level impoverished counties to conduct an empirical investigation. Our results suggest that government concerns lead to divergence between the RI and MI groups, creating a benefit cliff of nearly 8000 yuan between them. Government concerns also have a significantly negative causal effect on land dependence and land use efficiency among RI groups for whom the benefit differential has a significantly negative effect on the share of land income. Further, an increase in the benefit differential has a stronger negative impact on land use for RI groups with lower per capita income. In terms of evolving government concerns, the land use efficiency of RI groups falls significantly after government concerns cease; meanwhile, among MI groups, land dependence drops significantly and land use efficiency rises significantly after government concerns begin. In light of this, we argue that the government should use recipients' livelihood strategies as a reference point. This involves applying land elements to bridge gaps in government concerns for MI groups, guiding and nudging them, and integrating multi-channel policy support to ensure the initial velocity and acceleration of RI groups. Such efforts will help RI and MI groups to escape poverty and raise their income to strengthen their livelihood resilience and break the welfare curse. This study provides empirical support for the 'cliff effect' of government concerns, and the empirical findings can serve as a reference for promoting the precise allocation of resources for poverty relief and boosting the effectiveness of relative poverty governance. • Government concerns cause a divergence between RI and MI groups. • Government concerns negatively affect RI groups' land dependence and efficiency. • Benefit differential leads to variations in land use within RI groups. • Government concern shifts result in RI and MI groups' land use transformations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As the world population ages, long-term care (LTC) for the disabled elderly has become an urgent policy issue facing countries around the world. This study aims to analyze the determinants and inequalities in the utilization of different home- and institution-based LTC services in China. Using data from the Chinese Longitudinal Healthy Longevity Survey, we established a multinomial logit regression model based on the Andersen's healthcare utilization model as a framework to identify the related factors. A concentration index and its decomposition were then adopted to measure the inequalities and decompose their major contributors in the utilization of LTC. The results show that all enabling factors, some need factors (limitations in activities of daily living and instrumental activities of daily living), and some predisposing factors (age, gender) significantly affected home-and institution-based care use. Evidence of inequalities in LTC use was found among Chinese elderly. Specifically, use of institution-based care was concentrated among rich people, while use of home-based care was concentrated among poor people. Some socioeconomic factors were major contributors to LTC inequality. Major contributors of inequality differed between users of home or institutional care. Strategies aimed at reducing inequality of LTC services should address related socioeconomic factors and major contributors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Poverty reduction has increasingly become a core subject for researchers across the social sciences from economics to finance, management, and entrepreneurship. This study goes beyond existing management and entrepreneurship literature that has devoted significant efforts to exploring market-based ways for economic development, but has neglected poor people in rural areas excluded from participating in and accessing markets. In this study, the sharing economy is proposed as an effective way to resolve and reduce the poverty problem. We show how to overcome institutional voids by facilitating two fundamental mechanisms (i.e., building new markets, cultivating new participants) that bring together entrepreneurship, local peasants, and governments in building inclusive markets. We reveal omitted elements, such as geographic and temporal differences in market development across regions and times, as the key source of institutional voids in emerging markets. The analyses are conducted using data from multiple sources ranging from participant observation, retrieval of archival documents, and in-depth interviews covering 335 counties of 16,500 villages involved with Taobao in 2007–2017 in China. The findings shed insight on the studies on institutional voids, entrepreneurship, and the sharing economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: It is of great challenge to raise the public coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) related health literacy (CRHL) in impoverished regions due to the limits of poor infrastructure, large proportion of vulnerable groups, etc. However, those limits cannot be solved in the short term. Therefore, this study chose Liangshan Yi Autonomous Prefecture, one of the poorest areas in China, as a pilot, to reveal the quantitative relationships among different dimensions under the COVID-19 health education framework, clarify the key points for health promotion, and provide specific suggestions for COVID-19 health education strategy in impoverished regions. Methods: A cross-sectional questionnaire survey was conducted in five regions of Liangshan Yi Autonomous Prefecture in 2020. There were 2,100 individuals sampled by multi-stage method. This survey mainly measured the four dimensions: CRHL, COVID-19 related tense psychological reactions (CRTPR), COVID-19 related information report acquisition (CRIRA), and general health literacy (GHL). The multivariate logistic regression was used to explore the influence of demographic characteristics on each dimension. Furthermore, to quantify the relationships among different dimensions, this study employed the structural equation model (SEM), and analyzed the mediating effects of CRHL and CRIRA as well as the moderating effects of regional characteristic variables. Results: The CRHL played an important role in promoting COVID-19 health education, reaching 52.5% in Liangshan Yi Autonomous Prefecture. The GHL (β = 0.336) and age (β = 0.136) had statistically positive impacts on CRHL. The CRHL affected CRTPR negatively (β = − 0.198) and CRIRA positively (β = 0.052). The CRHL played significant mediating roles among the four dimensions (P < 0.05). Effectiveness of government prevention and control as well as the ethnicity moderated not only the relationships between CRHL and other dimensions, but also the mediating effect of CRHL (P < 0.05). People with lower income and education levels had lower GHL (β = 0.286, 1.292). The youth were more likely to show CRTPR (β = − 0.080). Conclusions: By proposing and verifying the theoretical framework, this study put forward specific suggestions on how to improve COVID-19 health education strategies in impoverished regions via implementation methods, key groups and effect evaluation, which also provided references about future public health emergencies for other impoverished regions of the world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the past 40-plus years since its reform and opening up, China has made remarkable achievements in poverty reduction. It accomplished the task of eradicating absolute poverty at the end of 2020 as scheduled, which is of great significance to both China and the world. Using the China Household Income Project (CHIP) survey data from 2002 to 2018, this paper studies the characteristics of the rural poverty-stricken population and estimates the poverty reduction effect of China's social security which transfers income to the poor. We find that the transferred income targeting the poor population can effectively reduce rural poverty. In the post-2020 era, poverty reduction in China has shifted its focus from eliminating absolute poverty to alleviating relative poverty. Since the majority of the remaining relatively impoverished people in China lack the necessary ability to work, they can hardly throw off poverty through development-oriented poverty alleviation programmes. Therefore, it is necessary to shift the focus of poverty reduction in rural China from development-oriented policies to social security-based policies, which is essential to alleviate relative poverty in the new stage and prevent people from slipping back to poverty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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The existing research has explored the effects of growth mindset intervention on individuals in Western culture. This study sought to determine whether growth mindset intervention has a positive impact on adolescents in economically disadvantaged areas of China. Participants in this study were 324 junior high school students who were randomly divided into the intervention group and the control group. The intervention group received six weeks of intervention classes designed to help students learn, internalize, and reinforce the concept of growth mindset. The aims of intervention were to build students' beliefs that the brain is plastic and that individuals can change by their efforts and help students acquire the strategies to cope with the difficulties. The control group was given six classes on mental health, including time management, habit formation, and memory strategies, which were unrelated to growth mindset. All participants' implicit theory of intelligence, fixed-trait attributions, grit, and state anxiety were assessed in the pre-test and post-test. The results showed that compared with the control group, the intervention group had a significant increase in growth mindset, the level of grit, and decrease in fixed-trait attributions. That is, for students in the intervention group, strengthening of growth mindset was accompanied by more frequent use of process-focused attribution styles, more perseverance, and greater efforts when faced with challenges and setbacks. Collectively, the results suggested that having a strong growth mindset of intelligence may help students adopt more proactive coping strategies and protect them from the deleterious effects of poverty on student development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Protecting biodiversity and reducing human poverty is a global challenge to all countries, including China, which has high biodiversity, large urban centers, and a large human population. Here, we discussed the effects of policies designed to alleviate poverty (Ecological Emigration, Ecological Restoration and Ecotourism) on the conservation status of primates in China. We present evidence that improving human well‐being and increasing the income of poor people in rural areas of China over the past two decades has had a positive effect on the population persistence of several species of nonhuman primates. However, we also identify inadequacies in the implementation of this policy which include the construction of infrastructures that fragment remaining forests and disrupt opportunities for gene flow, as well as practices associated with reforestation and the planting of monocultures rather than restoring natural habitat. Accordingly, we suggest that prioritizing biodiversity protection and habitat restoration in the implementation of China's current economic policies to alleviate poverty represents a successful model for wildlife conservation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Historical trends in household energy mix and disparities are examined revealing adoption of clean modern energies can effectively reduce energy consumption and associated carbon emission inequalities. [Display omitted] Universal access to clean fuels in household use is one explicit indicator of sustainable development while currently still billions of people rely on solid fuels for daily cooking. Despite of the recognized clean transition trend in general, disparities in household energy mix in different activities (e.g. cooking and heating) and historical trends remain to be elucidated. In this study, we revealed the historical changing trend of the disparity in household cooking and heating activities and associated carbon emissions in rural China. The study found that the poor had higher total direct energy consumption but used less modern energy, especially in cooking activities, in which the poor consumed 60 % more energy than the rich. The disparity in modern household energy use decreased over time, but conversely the disparity in total residential energy consumption increased due to the different energy elasticities as income increases. Though per-capita household CO 2 and Black Carbon (BC) emissions were decreasing under switching to modern energies, the disparity in household CO 2 and BC deepened over time, and the low-income groups emitted ∼ 10 kg CO 2 more compared to the high-income population. Relying solely on spontaneous clean cooking transition had limited impacts in reducing disparities in household energy and carbon emissions, whereas improving access to modern energy had substantial potential to reduce energy consumption and carbon emissions and its disparity. Differentiated energy-related policies to promote high-efficiency modern heating energies affordable for the low-income population should be developed to reduce the disparity, and consequently benefit human health and climate change equally. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China has adopted a long-term campaign against poverty. In recent decades, there is an increasing understanding that ecological poverty alleviation can meet the dual goals of environmental protection and rural poverty reduction. China is pivoting towards forestry-based poverty reduction in the severely poverty-stricken areas. However, several key factors remain elusive, including the extent to which the poor people benefit from forestry programs, whether they are satisfied with the policies and whether the policies are effective for poverty alleviation. Based on data collected through a questionnaire survey of 79 households in the prefectures of Nujiang and Aba, southwestern China, the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) approach was used to examine the effectiveness of the forestry-based poverty alleviation policy. The results showed that four poverty alleviation pathways, including industry, employment, micro-finance and pairing assistance in villages, had obviously increased the incomes of the filing poor households and solved the problem of "Two Worries-free and Three Guarantees". The poor were satisfied with the forestry-based ecological poverty alleviation policies and these policies had good effects in fighting against poverty. However, there are still some shortcomings, such as a lack of active participation, imperfect targeted identification, lack of funds and limited sources of funds during the policy implementation. Our results highlight the importance of the forestry industry and the public welfare position in the alleviation of poverty in the poverty-stricken areas. Synergies between ecological protection and poverty reduction are possible through sound forestry-based policies. This article recommends five policies to simultaneously realize the potential of poverty alleviation and environment protection through forestry development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Moral appeals consistent with an individual's values affect their propensity to take action against inequality and its deleterious effects. Accordingly, moral foundations such as harm, fairness, loyalty, authority, or purity concerns could also affect perceptions of inequality and attributions regarding who is to blame for it. For instance, individuals high in loyalty concerns, who are typically more conservative, may show in‐group favoritism toward their own country by expressing less moral judgment of inequality in their own country versus other countries. Further, research germane to the belief in a just world has shown that conservatives are more likely to blame the poor for their poverty. The current research investigated the degree to which participants' moral reactions to a high degree of economic inequality are influenced by the country in which that inequality exists as well as the degree to which liberals (Democrats) versus conservatives (Republicans) blame inequality on different target groups. A mixed‐design experiment tested participants' degree of blame for equality across all targets (the poor, the rich, corporations, the government) for one of three randomly assigned countries (the United States, Australia, or China). Results were consistent with predictions related to moral concerns and ideological differences in attributions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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As China's economy is rapidly changing from a planned to a capitalist economy, many families find themselves financially struggling. In some cases, conflicting values and attitudes may contribute to mental health challenges such as depression that would lead to further feelings of helplessness and immobilization. Using a random sample of 1006 low-income households from Pudong District of Shanghai, China, this study aims to examine the relationships between household assets, beliefs about government as the primary way to improve economic circumstances and self-reported depressive symptoms. In addition, this study investigates the mediation effects of beliefs that government is the best change agent for improved life circumstances on the relationship between household assets and depression. We found those who indicated that government was the main means for attaining a better life had significantly higher depression levels whereas higher numbers of household assets were associated with lower depression levels. We also found that viewing government as the most important change agent only partially mediated the relationship between household assets and depression (p <.001). Findings from this study support anti-poverty policies and social work related practice initiatives aimed at assisting low income families in China, in particular the need to address psychological as well as economic needs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the orderly promotion of the national poverty alleviation work, the number of rural poor people in China has decreased significantly, but due to the imbalance of regional development, deep poverty areas still exist.The balanced development of rural basic public services (RBPS) is one of the important directions to solve the deep-seated contradictions in poor areas. In this paper, Hechi City of Guangxi Province is taken as the research area, and the multi-dimensional poverty measurement model and RBPS evaluation model are constructed respectively. The collaborative development relationship between RBPS and multi-dimensional poverty reduction in the research area is revealed by coupling coordination degree and GIS spatial analysis method. The results show that the spatial distribution of coupling degree and coupling coordination degree between basic public services and multi-dimensional poverty is unbalanced. Basic public services and multi-dimensional poverty are closely related, and the level of basic public services has a positive impact on multi-dimensional poverty, and the poverty reduction of basic public services is feasible. In order to achieve stable and sustainable poverty eradication, it is necessary to establish a scientific and systematic evaluation system of rural basic public service poverty reduction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]