SMU Associate Professor of Political Science, John Donaldson gave his comments as one of the panellists on China Global TV Network (CGTN) America’s The Heat, which discussed China’s goal to alleviate poverty by 2020. He said much of the earlier poverty reduction happened in the late 1970s till mid-80s when industrialisation occurred. The second major wave occurred when then-President Hu Jintao implemented welfare reforms to make education and healthcare more assessable, and gave subsidies for agriculture. However, today, challenges remain despite new investments in healthcare as different localities in China face unique and varying issues so some areas won’t be able to deal with poverty as well as others.