A farmer picks tea leaves in Mazhai Village of Danzhai County, southwest China's Guizhou Province, July 2, 2018. The county changed management mode of tea plantation to promote the poverty relief work. Photo:Xinhua

An official-designed application for poverty alleviation in China came into the spotlight and received mixed reviews online over the weekend amid the country's sprint to end poverty by the end of next year.

The app, whose name is roughly translated as "social poverty alleviation," was initially developed in 2017 by a poverty-alleviation promotion website under the State Council Leading Group Office of Poverty Alleviation and Development, aimed at establishing a poverty profile and resolving practical problems. 

The app has multiple functions like direct donations, fundraising and online ordering of products of impoverished farmers.  

Many people recently recommended the app through Twitter-like Sina Weibo, hailing the app's convenience. 

In January, the office released a guideline aimed at getting rid of poverty by patronizing poverty areas and purchasing local agricultural products.

But others complained about the application's limited search functions. Some said they were forced to install the app because some grass-roots government officials wanted to show off the installation rate. 

Lazy men begging on the platform has also jarred some users. Netizens said they have come across healthy young men in underdeveloped areas who asked for a motorcycle and a pet dog without any explanation. 

Yu Shaoxiang, an expert on poverty relief legislation at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences in Beijing, told the Global Times on Tuesday that the app is a nice supplement to poverty alleviation work. 

However, the process of grass-roots governments needs to be refined with supervision from society and a proper feedback mechanism to avoid formalism, noted Yu. He suggested that more charitable organizations assist and supervise the government's promotion of the app. 

In 2019, the office stressed that poverty alleviation must be practical and realistic. 

"To reach those who remain in poverty is a hardest mission," Yu said. "There is also a need to continuously expand the scope of social assistance and improve the level of social insurance."

From 2013 to 2018, the number of poor people living in rural areas dropped from 98.99 million to 16.6 million. By the end of this year, about 95 percent of the country's poor will have been lifted out of poverty.