区域性整体贫困
2011年发布的《中国农村扶贫开发纲要（2011-2020年）》大致指出了中国连片特困地区的范围：国家将六盘山区、秦巴山区、武陵山区、乌蒙山区、滇桂黔石漠化区、滇西边境山区、大兴安岭南麓山区、燕山-太行山区、吕梁山区、大别山区、罗霄山区等区域的连片特困地区和已明确实施特殊政策的西藏、四省藏区、新疆南疆三地州，作为扶贫攻坚主战场。中国在解决区域性整体贫困问题方面的主要理念和实践是：第一，始终坚持以经济建设为中心，坚持发展是硬道理，把发展作为解决中国所有问题的关键和中国共产党执政兴国的第一要务。第二，将生存权和发展权作为首要的基本人权。第三，在具体推进国家和社会发展中，有计划、分阶段、稳扎稳打地解决贫穷问题。第四，长期以来坚持有重点地解决贫穷问题。虽然中国脱贫攻坚目标是在2020年解决区域性整体贫困问题，但是在防止返贫、缓解相对贫困、缩小发展差距方面，依然任重道远。
Overall Regional Poverty
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.