In the Outline for Development-oriented Poverty Alleviation of China's Rural Areas (2011-2020), released in 2011, the following are identified as contiguous areas of extreme poverty: Liupan Mountains, Qinling-Bashan mountains, Wuling Mountains, Wumeng Mountains, desertified regions in Yunnan, Guangxi and Guizhou, border mountainous regions in west Yunnan Province, regions at the southern foot of the Greater Hinggan Mountains, Yanshan-Taihang mountains, Lüliang Mountains, Dabie Mountains, and Luoxiao Mountains, as well as the Tibet Autonomous Region, the Tibetan ethnic areas in Sichuan, Yunnan, Gansu and Qinghai provinces, and the three prefectures in southern Xinjiang (Hotan, Kashi and the Kizilsu Kirgiz Autonomous Prefecture) where special poverty alleviation policies have been applied already.

The following are the Chinese visions for eliminating regional poverty:

(1) Focusing on economic development as the central task and regarding development as the top priority and as the key to solving all issues in China and to improving the CPC's governance;

(2) Considering the rights to subsistence and development as the primary human rights;

(3) Advancing poverty alleviation in a planned manner, step by step; and

(4) Tackling poverty with priorities.

The country is expected to eliminate overall regional poverty by the year 2020, but after that there will be the challenges of preventing people from slipping back into poverty, relieving relative poverty, and narrowing the development gap.