Overall, it could be argued that po

Overall, it could be argued that poverty reduction in China has been more strongly related to
changes in economic structure and in inequality than to GDP growth per se. If so, China’s ability to sustain
the pace of poverty reduction will depend on its ability to keep in place recent policies aimed at reducing
inequality as well as ensuring that structural change remains positive and dynamic. This is in keeping with
lessons from the pre-reform experience as well. China was served well by a combination of egalitarian land
distribution and experience with commune, collective and cooperative forms of organisation, which ensured
a degree of income equality and helped release and pool labour resources for undertaking non-agricultural
activities jointly managed with State support. To the extent that economic reform undermines such egalitarianism
and adversely affects the growth of the TVEs, it would set back poverty reduction as well.