[The Chinese are] almost done uplifting their population over the poverty level.
Not by a long shot. If you look carefully, you'll notice that China uses a different poverty line than the World Bank does. The World Bank's poverty line is USD $1.90 daily. In China, the poverty line is 2800 RMB annually. This means anyone making 2801 RMB (USD $399.70 at today's exchange rate) in a year, which comes out to USD $1.09 per day, is considered "lifted from poverty" by China's standards, while still living well below the World Bank's poverty line.
Xi Jinping even admitted this in his in a speech in Seattle on 22 Sep, 2015 (quoted on page 29 of Governance of China, Vol. II).
According to our standards, there are still 70 million people living in poverty in China. According to World Bank standards, 200 million Chinese are still living below the poverty line.
It is also worth noting that this figure is likely to be a generous estimate, given China's well-documented history of doctoring statistics.
I am aware this was a minor footnote in the grand scheme of the post and not related to the Main Idea, but it bears correction.
I stand corrected. Thank you.