Financial institutions, enterprises, NGOs and private investments were also mobilized to join the long-lasting battle against poverty.
Companies like Tencent and Alibaba have triggered an Internet revolution in remote villages and are helping peasants try their luck in booming e-commerce by selling their agricultural products to online shoppers nationwide.
Meanwhile, officials at all levels have been told to meet their poverty alleviation targets or face sanctions, the first time they have been given such obligations.
In 2014, 430,000 experienced government officials were sent in 125,000 teams to impoverished villages to become "champions" of fighting poverty.
PRECISE SOLUTIONS
Villager Nie Zhonghua from Guizhou Province may not know what precision poverty relief is, but he surely has experienced its results. Last year, he went from being 200,000 yuan in debt to earning an annual income of over 100,000 yuan.
Thanks to the precision poverty relief program, he received specific technical support from vegetable cooperatives and loans from a local bank to build a greenhouse.
"For us, just giving money might not necessarily help, but supporting us in running a business definitely does, " Nie said.
With economic growth slowing down and the income gap widening in some areas, the fight against poverty has entered a new phase focusing on targeted, precise solutions tailored to suit different regions and groups.
Identifying the needs of the poor is the first step in the poverty relief battle and only by fully understanding the problem can policymakers deliver the targeted measures proposed by the central authorities for the 13th Five-year Plan (2016-2020), said Wang Sangui, a poverty relief specialist at Beijing's Renmin University,
Access to water, power, the Internet, education, healthcare and public services all need improvement in poor areas. Especially needed is a system to care for those "left-behind" in the scramble for urbanization -- children, women and the elderly.
"Socialism is our political and institutional advantage," said Liu Yongfu, "We are confident that we'll win the war against poverty, and our dream for common prosperity will come true."
