Wu Huayan, a girl who was severely malnourished due to starvation to cure her illness, died in the hospital due to exhausted health.

Wu Huayan died at the age of 24 on January 13, after being admitted to hospital in October due to breathing difficulties. Wu's situation caught the attention of the Chinese public when photos of a skinny girl, 1m35 tall, weighing just over 20 kg, went viral online last year.

Wu said he had to seek media help after witnessing his father and grandmother's death due to lack of medical expenses. "I don't want to go through that, wait to die of poverty," she said.

Wu was born in Guizhou, one of China's poorest provinces. Losing her mother when she was 4 years old, she and her younger brother initially lived with her and were supported 300 yuan (42 USD) a month by her uncle and aunt. However, most of the meager money went to cure Wu's mentally ill younger brother. Every day, she only lives with 2 yuan ($ 0.30), mainly eating rice with chili for a long time, leading to severe malnutrition.

Doctors say the third-year college girl suffers from heart and kidney problems due to food shortages in the past five years. Wu even lost her eyebrows and had half a hair on her head. Many benefactors, teachers and classmates as well as the locals provided more than a million yuan to help Wu with treatment but she did not survive.

Wu's situation sparked a wave of criticism of the government for not paying close attention to difficult people. Before her death, Guizhou authorities issued a statement saying Wu received a minimum allowance of about 300-700 yuan ($ 100) a month from the government and was receiving an emergency relief of 20,000 yuan. (2,900 USD).

Despite China's strong economic growth in recent decades, poverty persists. The country pledged to eradicate poverty by 2020, but the National Bureau of Statistics says that in 2017, 30.46 million people in rural areas still live below the poverty line of US $ 1.9 a day.

Earlier this month, Jiangsu province was controversial, claiming that only 17 of its more than 80 million people lived below the poverty line.