China creates miracle in poverty reduction
By Ping Zi, Du Yifei
China has made remarkable
achievements in poverty alleviation in the past 70 years since the founding of
the People's Republic of China.
To be specific, a farmer
named Shi Quanyou from Shibadong village, Huayuan county of central China’s
Hunan Province has lifted his family out of poverty after running an
agritainment farm; Hongfeng village, Huoshan county of eastern China’s Anhui Province
is now earning 30,000 yuan ($4,200) per mu (667 square meters) of dendrobium
after its people mastered the artificial cultivation technique of this herbal
medicine.
Besides, 43 households of
the Dong ethnic group in Malong village, Jianhe county of southwestern China’s
Guizhou Province, have been relocated from inhospitable areas for poverty
relief, and are now embracing a better life.
All above are miniatures
of China’s poverty alleviation achievements.
Poverty was prevalent in
rural China for a long time after the founding of the People's Republic of
China. According to poverty criteria in China the proportion of rural population
living below the poverty line was 97.5 percent at the end of 1978, or 770 million
people.
Starting from the reform
and opening-up in 1978, China adopted a series of medium-and long-term policies
of poverty reduction, waging an unprecedented war against poverty in human
history. As a result, the country saw a continuous growth of its rural
residents’ income and a sharp decrease of the impoverished population.
According to statistics
released by the World Bank, over the past 40 years, the number of people in
China living below the international poverty line has dropped by more than 850
million - this represents 70 percent of the total world figure.
With the highest number
of people moving out of poverty, China was the first developing country to
realize the UN Millennium Development Goal for poverty reduction.
Especially since the 18th
National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC) held in 2012, poverty
alleviation has been put in a prominent place of state governance.
Over the last 6 years,
China has lifted 82.39 million rural people, 80 percent of impoverished
villages and over half of impoverished counties out of poverty, delivering the
best performance ever in Chinese history of poverty reduction. The poverty rate
of the country has dropped to 1.7 percent at the end of last year.
At present, China is
fighting to eradicate absolute poverty. Implementing a basic strategy of taking
targeted measures for poverty alleviation, a new round of poverty relief
campaign will shift its focus from regions to individuals to make sure that the
poverty issue is tackled from the root.
Working teams have been
sent to villages for performing investigations, and 2.78 million stationing
officials and 459,000 outstanding officials have been selected from all over
the country and deployed to serve as first secretaries of the Party committees
of poor villages.
Besides, the country is
also fostering distinctive industries, advancing relocation,
carrying out ecological restoration, strengthening education , improving
social security, and taking targeted and differentiated measures to ensure that
the impoverished receive assistance and measures are practically implemented.
In 2018, China offered
huge assistance to impoverished regions and farmers in rearing animals, and
also steadily promoted poverty alleviation projects through developing photovoltaic
industry and e-commerce, gradually improving and enriching its
poverty reduction mechanism.
By means of employment
transfer, the country created employment opportunities for 2.59 million people
in 2018. It established more than 30,000 poverty alleviation
workshops, helping 770,000 registered impoverished people get employed in areas
close to their home.
China further improved
the conditions of disadvantaged compulsory education schools in poverty-stricken
areas, with enhanced efforts to control the dropout rate.
The program to provide
medical treatment to impoverished people with serious diseases in rural areas
was expanded to cover 21 kinds of diseases and over 10 million poor people have
received treatment. China has further reduced the ratio of self-paid health
care costs for poor patients, and improved medical treatment conditions in poor
areas.
In addition, more than
500,000 people living under China's poverty line have been employed as government-paid
forest rangers through ecological poverty-relief programs.
So far, China has
basically finished building a poverty alleviation mechanism with Chinese characteristics,
with responsibility, policy and assessment systems being the frame of the
top-level design.
Thanks to the targeted
measures, the country’s impoverished regions are embracing historic and striding
changes.
Farmers from impoverished
regions saw their income grow at an annual speed of 12.1 percent in the past 6
years, higher than the national average. 99.5 percent of Chinese villages are
now linked with hardened roads, and 96.5 percent have bus services. Besides,
the improved access to drinking water and sanitation lavatories is also making
the countryside more inhabitable. The per capita consumption in impoverished
rural areas grew at an average annual rate of 11.4 percent in
the past 6 years.
More and more
impoverished people are shaking off poverty and embracing a new life.
Community health service
is now available in 93.2 percent of natural villages in China, and 89.8 percent
of rural households can find an elementary school nearby. Besides, 92 percent
of impoverished households are developing industries with local features to get
out of poverty.
What’s more, China’s
poverty-reduction campaign has also ignited the passion of the impoverished
people whose demand is not only to “be lifted out of poverty” but also to stay
out of poverty. Such shift of mindset is building a powerful joint force to
fight against poverty.
In the meantime, China’s
poverty alleviation results are benefitting other countries and their peoples.
China, with an aim to build a community with a shared future for mankind, is
actively responding to the UN Millennium Development Goal and 2030 Agenda for
Sustainable Development. It is conducting broad international collaboration on
poverty reduction.
Over the past 70 years,
China provided financial aid of over 400 billion yuan to nearly 170 countries
and international organizations and carried out over 5,000 assistance projects
overseas, having dispatched more than 600,000 personnel, trained over 12
million from other developing countries and assisted over 120 developing countries
to realize the Millennium Development Goal.
China plans to eliminate
absolute poverty by 2020. The plan is not only a key step for the country to realize
the Chinese dream of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation,
but also a significant and glorious cause in human history of poverty
reduction. It is bound to further promote the global poverty alleviation.
China creates miracle in poverty reduction
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