Xi urges stepped-up efforts to eradicate poverty by 2020

President Xi Jinping has urged more intensified and precise poverty relief efforts to accomplish the country's goal to pull all people out of poverty by the end of 2020.

To eradicate poverty in rural areas on time is the "bottom line for China's building a well-off society in an all-round way, and also our solemn commitment", Xi said while chairing a group study session on Tuesday of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee.

During the session, Xi, also general secretary of the CPC Central Committee, underscored the importance of stronger leadership, more funding support and better coordination between government departments and between the country's eastern and western regions.