Statistics released by the national poverty alleviation authorities show government-sponsored efforts to help people out of poverty have made further progress. However, they should also be a reminder that non-economic measures are also needed if the country is to attain its goal of building a well-off society in an all-round way.

According to the office that oversees national poverty alleviation and development, with the help of government-subsidized projects, 23.39 million people were pulled out of poverty in China's rural areas in 2012, reducing the number of poor in the country by 10.2 percent to 98.99 million.

This is undoubtedly an appreciable feat for a populous nation whose economic development is still very uneven. Especially as the government raised the poverty threshold to 2,300 yuan ($368) a year in November 2011, which resulted in the number of people judged to be living in poverty increasing to 128 million, nearly one-tenth of the country's total population.