As the bar chart shows, the number of people below thepovertyline decreased dramatically during the years of 1978 to1997.Asearly as 1978, about 250 million people were under thepovertyline.Then seven years later, the number became three fifthsthat of1978.And arriving in the year 1997, the number was reducedto 50millions.

Several factors contribute to the sharp decrease ofthebelow-poverty population. The reform and opening following1978enabled the peasants to become much better off.And withthedevelopment of Chinese economy, that policy also omprovedcitydwellers lives greatly.Furthermore, the high-tech introducedmadeit possible for the countrys economy as a whole to takeoff.Allthese result in the great fall of the Chinese populationbelow thepoverty line.

However, a further decrease in the number ofpoverty-strickenpeople is faced with some problems.With quite fewemployees beinglaid off, the effect of which is not onlydiscouraging, but alsochallenging.So my principle is to pay dueattention to thenewcomers, but not just to care for the poor, say, in remotemountain areas.