貧困地區

貧困地區是指那些貧困人口數量、貧困深重程度高于其他區域的地區。改革開放以來，中國大規模的扶貧開發行動以特定時期所確定的貧困地區為工作重點。1982年，國務院在甘肅的定西地區、河西地區和寧夏的西海固地區（簡稱“三西地區”)劃定了28個重點扶持縣。1984年，《中共中央 國務院關于幫助貧困地區盡快改變面貌的通知》發布，基本奠定了全國貧困地區大致范圍。《通知》指出，由于自然條件、工作基礎和政策落實情況的差異，農村經濟還存在發展不平衡的狀況，特別是還有幾千萬人口的地區仍未擺脫貧困，群眾的溫飽問題尚未完全解決。其中絕大部分是山區和邊遠地區，有的還是少數民族聚居地區和革命老根據地。解決貧困地區的問題要突出重點，特別是集中力量解決十幾個連片貧困地區的問題。此后的扶貧開發工作雖對貧困地區的范圍有所調整，但大體遵循了上述范圍界定的基本思路。1986年，國務院在全國范圍內陸續確定了331個國家重點扶持貧困縣。1988年，國務院在河北、內蒙古、四川、甘肅、青海和新疆的牧區中又確定了27個國家重點扶持縣。各省、自治區也根據各自具體情況確定了300多個省級重點扶持縣。由此，到1988年年底，全國共有貧困縣664個。后來個別省、自治區增加扶持范圍，全國貧困縣總數達到699個。1994年，列入《國家八七扶貧攻堅計劃（1994-2000年）》扶持范圍的貧困縣調整為592個。2001年，根據《中國農村扶貧開發綱要（2001-2010年）》的要求，中國重新確定了592個國家扶貧開發工作重點縣、 14.8萬個貧困村。

中共十八大以來，隨著脫貧攻堅戰的全面打響，貧困地區脫貧的重要性進一步凸顯，被稱為全面建成小康社會任務最繁重的區域，是打贏脫貧攻堅戰的主戰場。

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.