China’s Rural Revitalization Strategy: Sustainable Development, Welfare, and Poverty Alleviation

This article explores the various fundamental causes of rural poverty in China and justifies its eradication within the framework of a new rural renewal strategy. The main objective of this research lies in conducting a multidimensional analysis of the causes of rural poverty in China, examining the trends in its evolution, and substantiating the prospects for the development of rural territories within the country. The primary research methods are multidimensional quantitative and qualitative analyses of rural development in China and poverty and its causes. According to the study, rural households’ economic well-being is still very low in Central and Western China’s 22 provinces and other comparable administrative units. In 2022, per capita disposable income of rural households was 40.9% of the income of urban households nationwide. Compared to the year 2000, the average Engel Coefficient has decreased from 48.3%, indicating a moderately prosperous standard of living, to 33%, an excellent qualitative indicator of a certain improvement in rural living standards. The research uncovered a direct relationship between the income of rural households and regional gross domestic product, exports, budgetary expenditures, and the proportion of secondary and tertiary industries in the local economy. A dynamic econometric model has been proposed to elucidate the interdependence between exogenous and endogenous factors influencing the genesis of multidimensional poverty in rural regions. Given the global significance of China’s rural strategies, the incorporation of these research findings makes an additional contribution to the global discourse on the development of rural areas and their prospects.