No more U.N. food aid for China

From The AP, via CNN.com

SHANGHAI, China (AP) — The U.N. World Food Program is making its final food donation to China after more than 25 years of providing aid, the organization said Friday.

A final delivery of 43,450 tonnes of Canadian wheat worth $7.2 million was due to arrive in the southern port of Shenzhen on April 7, earmarked for poverty alleviation projects in four poor inland provinces, the WFP said in a statement.

The phasing-out of aid heralds China’s gradual emergence from decades of dire poverty and hunger, although incomes and living conditions in much of the country remain far behind those of the wealthy coastal cities.