To Get Rich is Glorious: Private Entrepreneurs in China’s Anti-Poverty Campaign

This article examines the role of private entrepreneurs in China’s state-sponsored poverty alleviation campaign. Focusing on the Guangcai Program (guangcai shiye), which was initiated in the early 1990s and rejuvenated in the Xi’s era, the article explores private entrepreneurs’ different motivations, resources and strategies to participate in the campaign as well as the state’s counter-measures. Based on field observations and surveys in Shandong for three years, the article demonstrates that the variety among China’s new rich, particularly in terms of business scale, family background, and political connection, has largely forged the approach entrepreneurs participate in the program and its divergent ultimate effects. It also shows that the Chinese state can timely adapt its tactics, according to the local environment and features of entrepreneurs, to mobilize all potential resources into the campaign. The findings of this article have great implications for understanding the success of China's recent poverty alleviation campaign and the complexity of state-business relations.