The China story

Building a prosperous society has a lot of implications. Among them, the complete eradication of absolute poverty is the lowest threshold and the most fundamental condition for creating a prosperous society in general. Without a moderately prosperous society in rural areas, especially in poor areas, there will be no comprehensively built well-off society. At a ceremony in Beijing on 25 February 2021, China's President Xi Jinping declared “Complete Victory” in the country’s campaign to end rural poverty.

Before that in December 2020, President Xi said over the past eight years of his leadership, the final 98.99 million impoverished rural residents living under the current poverty line have all been lifted out of poverty. The poverty list has been eliminated from all 832 impoverished counties and 128,000 impoverished villages. China has blazed a trail in poverty reduction and developed an anti-poverty theory with Chinese characteristics. With goals forming part of the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, China has met this target ten year ahead of schedule by contributing over 70 percent to global poverty reduction. China has made "Unprecedented Achievements" in rapid economic growth and poverty reduction, according to a World Bank report. UN Secretary-General António Guterres stated that China has made the greatest contribution to global poverty reduction in the last ten years.

Since the era of Deng Xiaoping, China's poverty alleviation efforts have received political support from the highest level of government. The Communist Party of China's Eleventh Central Committee convened its Third Plenary Session in December 1978. The Communist Party of China and the Chinese government shifted their focus to the economy, formulated a basic road map for China's development, and implemented a policy of reform and opening up. China began reforms in the rural land system and market at the same time. China's impoverished population has declined from 770 million in 1978 to 5.51 million at the end of 2019, with poverty rates dropping from 97.5 percent to 0.6 percent.

In November 2012, Xi Jinping was elected President of China. He inherited a mission that China has been working toward for generations which are eradicating utter poverty, and he has made poverty eradication a top policy priority. In November 2013, Xi Jinping paid an inspection visit to Xiangxi, Hunan Province in central China. For the first time during the inspection tour, the Chinese President brought up the idea of "Targeted Poverty Alleviation." The targeted poverty alleviation strategy has been one of the most important pillars of Xi's poverty alleviation efforts. Following that, Chinese leaders began formulating specific, measurable, and time-bound goals for eradicating absolute poverty by 2020. Hundreds of thousands of government officials have been dispatched across China to survey all rural households to determine whether they meet the poverty standards.

President Xi Jinping stated that eradicating poverty, enhancing people's livelihoods, and achieving common prosperity are key requirements of Chinese characteristics socialism and an important task of the Chinese Communist Party. China has a huge population, a relatively large number of poor people, and uneven regional development. To achieve all rural poor people out of poverty under the current standards as scheduled, and to fulfill the solemn promise made by the Party Central Committee to the people of the whole country, we must be more and more determined, accurate thinking, more powerful measures, take extraordinary measures and make great efforts to tackle poverty alleviation.

Targeted poverty alleviation is achieved through pursuing a five-pronged policy, focusing on industrial development, relocation, eco-compensation, education, social security, and established seven institutional systems (registration, policy, investment, assistance, social mobilization, multi-channel, all-around supervision, and assessment system. These efforts include releasing preferential tax policies, improving the use of anti-poverty funds, and establishing online platforms for selling agricultural products from poverty-stricken areas. It also entails organizing anti-poverty workshops and recruitment efforts, coordinating wealthier eastern regions to assist impoverished western areas, and sending millions of government representatives to these areas to fight poverty.

The population living in poverty-stricken areas is mainly the rural population and was the first to feel the impact of economic reforms. Taking this into account, the relevant departments have attempted to encourage farmers to expand agricultural product output and sales, hence raising farmers' real income. The Chinese government helps underprivileged areas improve their infrastructure by utilizing local resources. The Chinese saying "Construct Roads First to Get Rich" has become a key approach in China's poverty-reduction efforts. The government has also made significant investments in infrastructure as part of its anti-poverty efforts. The improvement of transportation has given residents the opportunity to enter the cash crop market and obtain medical care and education.

In the poverty reduction campaigns in China, tourism has become a highly profitable industry, and it has tremendously aided the development of rural areas. Tourism has created a large number of job openings, particularly in locations where other economic activities are difficult to promote. China has been fostering the growth of environmentally friendly tourism by bolstering policy assistance. Forest tourism has aided many individuals in China's remote locations in escaping poverty. In 2018, China's 1.475 million registered poor people realized income increase through forest tourism, with an average annual household income increase of 5,500 yuan.

China is like a train running on a solid track, moving fast in a clear direction at an amazing speed. China uses technology to get rid of poverty such as the use of drones for spraying pesticides, provide farmers with sales channels through e-commerce platforms. China evacuates poverty through live broadcasting, claiming that the changes in consumption habits caused by the development of the internet have brought huge opportunities for the development of rural areas in China. According to the report, live webcasting has become increasingly popular in China in recent years, particularly for assisting people in poor areas in bringing goods to market via live broadcasts, thus opening up a larger sales market, and the Internet has provided a new perspective on China's rural development.

China has realized the outset of reform that focusing on education and public health can reduce poverty and prevent poverty from being passed down through generations. People who have a decent education, maintain a fit body, and consume proper nourishment can all contribute to rapid progress and poverty eradication. According to data from the World Bank, China's literacy rate rose from 65.5 per cent in 1982 to 96.8 per cent in 2018, while the global average was 86.3 per cent. This is another extraordinary achievement. In 2019, China's total investment in education funds exceeded 5 trillion yuan, an increase of 8.74 per cent over the previous year. China's literacy rate increased from 65.5 percent in 1982 to 96.8 percent in 2018, according to World Bank data, while the global average was 86.3 percent. This is another remarkable feat. China's overall education fund investment exceeded 5 trillion yuan in 2019, an increase of 8.74 per cent over the previous year.

In the early twenty-first century, less than a third of China's population had medical insurance.

China actively disseminates and shares poverty-reduction experience, as well as promoting international poverty-reduction collaboration.

By the end of 2019, China had assisted in the construction of 24 agricultural technology demonstration centers in Africa, benefiting over 500,000 locals, and organized more than 100 poverty reduction training courses, training about 3,000 poverty reduction specialists in 116 developing countries. China is continuing to build a new platform for poverty reduction and development by combining the “Belt and Road” project with the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. According to the World Bank report, the joint construction of the “Belt and Road” will lift 7.6 million people out of extreme poverty and 32 million people out of moderate poverty in relevant countries, providing strong momentum for international poverty reduction.

The writer is a Doctoral Fellow in the School of International Trade and Economics at Jiangxi University of Finance and Economics.