A preliminary study on the features of Chinese social work forces’ involvement in rural anti-poverty

In 2015, the Chinese government announced the "Statement on Winning the Battle against Extreme Poverty" and launched a series of more intensive nationwide programmes targeting absolute poverty eradication. Chinese social agents from all walks of life, such as professional social work forces, were called and united by the central government to be involved in the battle. Through document research and in-depth interviews, this qualitative research aims to explore the Chinese features of social workers' involvement in rural anti-poverty by figuring out why and how Chinese social workers undertook the campaign. The authors found that Chinese social workers' anti-poverty work had strong state-oriented characteristics, and this work was greatly influenced by practical conditions, namely, embracing the administrative work method of designating staff to poor areas, pairing assistance, following up the social inclusion of the relocated population from inhospitable areas and taking full advantage of the new farm tool, e-commerce.