A brief perusal of any of America's political talk shows and you would think that China economic success was going to propel it into a position of global hegemony at any moment.

A new study by the World Bank written about in the International Herald Tribune reminds us that despite remarkable strides, China's got a long way to go in improving the quality of life for its 3 million poor.

New calculations regarding Chinese consumer's purchasing power triples the previously cited number for those living under a dollar a day in China. The article calls into question the effectiveness of many state sponsored programs directed towards alleviating the poverty of rural peasants.

According to the New York Times: "Ordinary people don't get any real benefits from poverty alleviation programs," said Li Guangyi, 35, a farmer who lives in the village of Zhangyoufang. "How could relief money get into our hands? It goes first toward relieving the local officials, who get rich on the tragedies of the nation."