貧困地區(qū)

貧困地區(qū)是指那些貧困人口數(shù)量、貧困深重程度高于其他區(qū)域的地區(qū)。改革開放以來，中國(guó)大規(guī)模的扶貧開發(fā)行動(dòng)以特定時(shí)期所確定的貧困地區(qū)為工作重點(diǎn)。1982年，國(guó)務(wù)院在甘肅的定西地區(qū)、河西地區(qū)和寧夏的西海固地區(qū)（簡(jiǎn)稱“三西地區(qū)”)劃定了28個(gè)重點(diǎn)扶持縣。1984年，《中共中央 國(guó)務(wù)院關(guān)于幫助貧困地區(qū)盡快改變面貌的通知》發(fā)布，基本奠定了全國(guó)貧困地區(qū)大致范圍?！锻ㄖ分赋觯捎谧匀粭l件、工作基礎(chǔ)和政策落實(shí)情況的差異，農(nóng)村經(jīng)濟(jì)還存在發(fā)展不平衡的狀況，特別是還有幾千萬人口的地區(qū)仍未擺脫貧困，群眾的溫飽問題尚未完全解決。其中絕大部分是山區(qū)和邊遠(yuǎn)地區(qū)，有的還是少數(shù)民族聚居地區(qū)和革命老根據(jù)地。解決貧困地區(qū)的問題要突出重點(diǎn)，特別是集中力量解決十幾個(gè)連片貧困地區(qū)的問題。此后的扶貧開發(fā)工作雖對(duì)貧困地區(qū)的范圍有所調(diào)整，但大體遵循了上述范圍界定的基本思路。1986年，國(guó)務(wù)院在全國(guó)范圍內(nèi)陸續(xù)確定了331個(gè)國(guó)家重點(diǎn)扶持貧困縣。1988年，國(guó)務(wù)院在河北、內(nèi)蒙古、四川、甘肅、青海和新疆的牧區(qū)中又確定了27個(gè)國(guó)家重點(diǎn)扶持縣。各省、自治區(qū)也根據(jù)各自具體情況確定了300多個(gè)省級(jí)重點(diǎn)扶持縣。由此，到1988年年底，全國(guó)共有貧困縣664個(gè)。后來個(gè)別省、自治區(qū)增加扶持范圍，全國(guó)貧困縣總數(shù)達(dá)到699個(gè)。1994年，列入《國(guó)家八七扶貧攻堅(jiān)計(jì)劃（1994-2000年）》扶持范圍的貧困縣調(diào)整為592個(gè)。2001年，根據(jù)《中國(guó)農(nóng)村扶貧開發(fā)綱要（2001-2010年）》的要求，中國(guó)重新確定了592個(gè)國(guó)家扶貧開發(fā)工作重點(diǎn)縣、 14.8萬個(gè)貧困村。

中共十八大以來，隨著脫貧攻堅(jiān)戰(zhàn)的全面打響，貧困地區(qū)脫貧的重要性進(jìn)一步凸顯，被稱為全面建成小康社會(huì)任務(wù)最繁重的區(qū)域，是打贏脫貧攻堅(jiān)戰(zhàn)的主戰(zhàn)場(chǎng)。

Impoverished Areas

"Impoverished areas" is how China defines areas with larger impoverished populations and greater poverty than other areas. At different stages since the late 1970s China has launched large-scale poverty alleviation programs targeting different impoverished areas.

For instance, in 1982, the State Council designated 28 poor counties in Gansu Province and Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region. In 1984, the central leadership issued a document entitled Notice on Helping the Impoverished Areas Improve Their Conditions, which delimited the general scope of poor areas across the country. The document pointed out that the imbalance in local natural conditions, economic development and implementation of policies resulted in imbalances in the rural economy, leaving millions of people still living in poverty with their basic needs not yet met. Most of the areas involved are mountainous or remote, and many are ethnic minority areas or old revolutionary bases. To tackle poverty, the focus should be on a dozen or so contiguous areas of extreme poverty.

Despite some adjustments over the following decades, the configuration of impoverished areas has remained more or less the same over the years.

In 1986, the State Council designated 331 key impoverished counties entitled to state assistance. Two years later in 1988, 27 more counties in Gansu, Hebei, Inner Mongolia, Qinghai, Sichuan and Xinjiang were added to the list. Provincial-level governments also designated more than 300 counties under their jurisdiction for special support. This raised the total number of poor counties to 664 by the end of 1988. A further expansion of the scope of assistance brought the number to 699 nationwide.

According to the Seven-year Program for Lifting 80 Million People Out of Poverty (1994-2000), released in 1994, there were 592 key counties entitled for state poverty alleviation assistance across China. The number remained at 592 in the Outline for Development-oriented Poverty Alleviation of China's Rural Areas (2001-2010), involving 148,000 poor villages.

The impoverished areas are the main battlefields in China's war against poverty, as they have the toughest problems to tackle in building a moderately prosperous society in all respects.