A year ago, the Chinese government announced that it had eliminated absolute poverty in China, a month before President Xi Jinping’s self-imposed deadline for achieving his signature aim. To meet this goal, the central government has spent tens of billions of dollars — almost $21 billion in 2020 alone — steadily ratcheting up anti-poverty spending every year this century.  Data: National Bureau of Statistics China Statistical Yearbook But where has all of this money gone? Much a