Abstract: Relative poverty is a concept closely related to the pattern of income distribution and income gap. The transition from absolute poverty to relative poverty inevitably requires a change in China's poverty alleviation and governance strategies. The governance of poverty alleviation in China is entering the new stage of gradually establishing a long-term mechanism for alleviating relative poverty. Relatively poor groups in rural areas have a lower education level and differ in their income composition, liabilities and financial assets, so there exist different types of poverty status below the relative poverty line. Through quantitative research on the regional distribution of relatively poor people in rural areas, it is found that they are mainly distributed in the less developed western regions. Regarding the governance system of rural relative poverty and the design of the mechanism for alleviating relative poverty, the recommended measures include targeting different types of relative poverty and alleviating relative poverty continuously with stepped and classified methods, focusing on regional equity, supplementing the vertical and horizontal transfer payments and providing support for the development of underdeveloped rural areas in the west, improving the external development environment and enhancing the endogenous development momentum of the relatively poor, and emphasizing the role of the market mechanism in addition to the government's role and using market-oriented means to plan and establish a long-term income-raising mechanism for alleviating relative poverty.