Chinese Authorities Cut Corners with Poverty Relief Project, Build Highway Rife with Safety Problems

This picture taken on July 22, 2013 shows a damaged highway after a pair of shallow earthquakes hit the area in Dingxi, in northwest China's Gansu province. STR/AFP/Getty Images

A road in a poverty-stricken area of central China that cost nearly 1.6 billion yuan (approximately $250 million) in government poverty-relief funds has recently been revealed to be shoddily built.

Despite drastic improvements in standards of living, large swathes of China remain impoverished. According to World Bank data, about 493 million, or 36 percent of China’s population, still live on $5.50 a day or less. More than 43 million people currently live on less than 95 cents a day, according to the regime’s official data.