Mohammed Saied Islam / Zhu Rui, Langjia Zeren, et al. (Trans.): Why China Could Achieve a Comprehensive Victory in Poverty Alleviation and Eradication
Poverty has always been a major issue facing the development of all nations; consequently, poverty reduction and eradication have become arduous tasks yet to be completed by the international community. Building a society of comprehensive prosperity requires many conditions, the most fundamental of which is the elimination of absolute poverty. If poverty reduction and eradication are not advanced in rural areas where the impoverished population is concentrated, then building a moderately prosperous society in all respects [1] remains out of the question.
On February 25, 2021, General Secretary Xi Jinping announced at the National Poverty Alleviation Summary and Commendation Conference held in Beijing that China's battle against poverty had achieved a comprehensive victory.
Poverty reduction and eradication have been long-term strategic priorities for China, and the country has continuously explored its way forward on the path of poverty alleviation. Since the beginning of reform and opening up, the Chinese government has adopted large-scale development-oriented poverty alleviation nationwide, implementing a series of medium- and long-term projects in a planned and organized manner. These include the "National 8-7 Poverty Alleviation Strategic Plan" (1994–2000) [2], and two editions of the "Outline for Development-oriented Poverty Alleviation in China's Rural Areas" (2001–2010 and 2011–2020). Particularly over the past several years, China launched the world's largest and most intensive battle against poverty, achieving breakthrough accomplishments on the road to poverty reduction and eradication.
The Communist Party of China (CPC) and the Chinese government formulated a basic roadmap for China's development and comprehensively deepened reform and opening up, including promoting the reform of the rural land system. Chinese leaders pledged to eliminate the problems of insufficient food and clothing, and to ensure compulsory education, basic medical care, and housing safety [3]. Over the 40-plus years of reform and opening up, China has successfully lifted 770 million rural poor out of poverty. In February 2021, General Secretary Xi Jinping solemnly declared that under China's current standards, all 98.99 million rural poor had been lifted out of poverty, all 832 poverty-stricken counties had "removed their hats" [4], and all 128,000 poverty-stricken villages had been removed from the poverty list. General Secretary Xi Jinping led the Chinese people in opening up a Chinese-path to poverty alleviation and nurtured an anti-poverty theory with Chinese characteristics. This achievement aligns with the development content of the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development to "eliminate extreme poverty and bring everyone's life to a basic standard by 2030." This means China achieved this poverty reduction goal 10 years ahead of schedule, contributing more than 70% to global poverty reduction. In its "Systematic Country Diagnostic" report, the World Bank praised China for achieving "unprecedented success" in rapid economic growth and poverty reduction. UN Secretary-General António Guterres further commented that China is the country that has made the greatest contribution to global poverty reduction over the past 10 years.
How did China achieve this comprehensive victory? In November 2013, during an inspection tour of Xiangxi, Hunan Province in central China, General Secretary Xi Jinping first proposed the important concept of "targeted poverty alleviation." Subsequently, based on this, the Chinese leadership formulated specific, measurable, and time-bound goals—to eliminate absolute poverty by 2020. This strategic thought became the winning formula for the CPC in leading the Chinese people to win the battle against poverty.
By the end of 2020, China had dispatched a cumulative total of over 3 million cadres to work as resident village officials [5], becoming the main force fighting on the front lines of poverty alleviation. During the "13th Five-Year Plan" period from 2016 to 2020, China invested a cumulative total of approximately 600 billion yuan in various funds to build centralized resettlement housing for people relocated from inhospitable areas.
Reviewing the key process of China's targeted poverty alleviation from theory to practice, the implementation of various methods—such as industrial support, relocation from inhospitable areas, ecological compensation, educational development, and social security "bottom-line" guarantees—as well as the institutional safeguards of seven systems (registration, policy, investment, assistance, social mobilization, multi-channel and all-round supervision, and evaluation) have all played irreplaceable and vital roles.
In fact, China's rural population was the first to feel the changes brought about by economic reform. Specifically, government departments at all levels in China have tried every possible means to help farmers increase the yield of agricultural products and promote sales, thereby increasing the actual income of the broad masses of farmers. There is a saying in China: "To get rich, first build a road" [6]; this has become an important strategy in China's poverty alleviation work. By developing and utilizing local resources, the government helps impoverished areas improve various infrastructures. The improvement of transportation allows people the opportunity to enter markets and obtain better medical and educational services. Therefore, massive investment in infrastructure construction has become an important component of poverty alleviation work.
In China's poverty alleviation cause, the tourism industry, capable of creating a large number of jobs, has become a sector with prominent benefits, greatly promoting the development of rural areas in China, especially in backward regions where traditional economic activities are difficult to carry out. To this end, the government has strengthened policy support to encourage the development of eco-friendly tourism. Taking forest tourism as an example of helping residents in remote areas achieve poverty alleviation, during the "13th Five-Year Plan" period, 1.475 million people from registered impoverished households in China increased their income through forest tourism, with an average annual household income increase of about 5,500 yuan.
Present-day China is like a train racing on solid tracks, traveling at an astonishing speed toward a clear direction. What attracts even more outside attention is that China is utilizing high technology to promote poverty reduction, such as using drones to spray pesticides and providing sales channels for farmers through e-commerce platforms. The rise of the internet has triggered major changes in the consumption habits of the Chinese public and has also brought huge opportunities for the development of rural areas. The phenomenon of helping rural poverty alleviation through live-streaming platforms is common and has become a typical case of China's innovative poverty reduction methods.
Having achieved such remarkable progress in poverty reduction in such a short period, there is no doubt that China has attained a historic achievement in eliminating absolute poverty. Currently, while the global economy suffers from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, the epidemic in China has been well-controlled, and the economy is stabilizing and accelerating its recovery.
To some Western critics, completely eliminating poverty and achieving resilient development in a country of 1.4 billion people seems overly optimistic or improbable. However, this is a task that China must complete, because the fundamental purpose of socialism is to achieve common prosperity for the people. Guided by people-centered thinking, CPC members and government cadres at all levels have worked together to make outstanding contributions to the elimination of poverty. If other countries want to take the end of poverty seriously, they can draw lessons from China's poverty reduction experience and model and apply them innovatively.