CCTV9英语新闻：Number of Chinese in poverty in rural areas dropped by 14 million in 2015（在线收听）

China has certainly been sparing no effort to eradicate poverty. According to a report issued by National Statistics Bureau, in 2015, the number of people in poverty in rural areas was reduced to about 55 million, a drop of more than 14 million on the previous year.

Meanwhile, the proportion of people living under the "poverty line" against China's total population -- or the Head Count Ratio -- saw a year-on-year drop of one-and-a half-percent. And that's a statistic which is improving all the time.

China's poverty line has stood at about 2,300 yuan per year -- that's about one US dollar per day -- since 2011. But that's actually lower than international standard of 1.9 dollars a day. This was raised by the World Bank from one-and-a-quarter dollars a day at the end of last year.