Guided Participation in Markets: A Study of Paired Assistance in Poverty Alleviation in China

Poverty alleviation in China has achieved great success. The principle of paired assistance, one of the various strategies available to help poor regions and people, gives a rich region or sector the responsibility to help one or several poor regions with its resources. Why has China insisted on the use of paired assistance when the central government is financially dominant? Through text analysis of relevant newspaper reports, this article shows that the central government has used paired assistance to help less developed regions become more capable of establishing and therefore participating in markets by mobilising and guiding assistance from wealthy regions.