Poverty alleviation in rural areas has been high on the agenda of Chinese government. This government-initiated undertaking has undergone several historical stages. Recently, China's poverty eradication campaign with targeted poverty alleviation as a benchmark has become a top priority for the country to build into a well-off society by 2020. A poverty alleviation pattern in which multiple sectors and the entire society participate extensively has formed. This paper has proposed the core issue of "the evolution of China's poverty alleviation policy". Starting from the main mechanism of "goal targeting"of policy object of poverty alleviation, it has reviewed the history of China 's policy on poverty alleviation and development and analyzed the content and policy system of the current policy of targeted poverty alleviation. It has attempted to interpret the policy connotations of "targeted poverty alleviation"from the logic of policy change in institutional transition.