National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) (2009), China Statistical Abstract. Both the nature of rural poverty and the instruments of poverty alleviation differ from previous phases. Therefore, the poverty-alleviation strategy emphasised targeting households and helping the poor through the social security system rather than through regional development programmes. In recent years, Dibao programme has been piloted in rural areas in order to set up a safety net for the poor in rural China.10 In 2008, the Chinese government raised the rural poverty line significantly, which means that the government’s poverty-alleviation efforts are going to cover more low-income people, including rural poor, in the Dibao programme (Table 3.6).