Nanping, among the poorest places in eastern China's Fujian province, is close to eliminating absolute poverty, local officials said.

The prefecture-level city, in the north of the province, has a population of around 3 million and "lifted 13,000 people out of absolute poverty" in 2017, becoming virtually free of the scourge.

China is seeking to end extreme poverty nationwide by 2020.

A provincial government report in January said only 0.02 percent of Fujian's 38.7 million people still lived in poverty. Its southern coastal cities, such as Xiamen, are affluent.

The latest central government data suggest 30.4 million Chinese live below the national poverty line, with the worst-hit areas being in the Tibet autonomous region, the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region and the provinces of Sichuan, Gansu, Yunnan and Qinghai.

The national poverty line is set at the per capita annual income of 2,300 yuan ($360), according to the Xinhua News Agency. The provincial poverty line is higher.

"Nanping has shaken off poverty," Yuan Yi, Nanping's Party chief, told a group of journalists in the city on May 26.

But eradication is not a onetime solution, he cautioned. "Some people might slip back into poverty because of diseases or natural disasters," Yuan said.

In 2017, 95 households, or around 270 individuals, returned to absolute poverty, Yi said, without specifying the cause.

"The big challenge in the next few years will be to prevent this from happening," he added.

China Daily was part of a media group tour last week that studied poverty relief in northern Fujian.