China eradicated absolute poverty, says Xi
Print Edition
CHINESE President Xi Jinping announced that China has secured a “complete victory” in its fight against poverty.
Xi said absolute poverty has been eradicated in the world’s most populous country, home to over 1.4 billion people. He made the announcement yesterday while addressing a grand gathering held in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing to mark the nation’s poverty alleviation accomplishments and honor model poverty fighters.
With absolute poverty eliminated, China has created another “miracle” that will “go down in history,” Xi said.
Over the past eight years, the final 98.99 million impoverished rural residents living under the current poverty line have all been lifted out of poverty. All 832 impoverished counties and 128,000 villages have also been removed from the poverty list.
The country has met the poverty eradication target set out in the United Nations’ 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development 10 years ahead of schedule.
Combined with poverty-reduction results since the late 1970s, China is responsible for over 70 percent of the global reduction in poverty over the period, World Bank statistics have shown. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres acknowledged the success of China’s anti-poverty campaign, calling it “the most important contribution” to the global poverty reduction cause.
“No country has been able to lift hundreds of millions of people out of poverty in such a short time,” Xi said.
At yesterday’s gathering, Xi presented medals, certificates and plaques to role models from the country’s anti-poverty fight. He also joined other Chinese leaders in presenting awards to individuals and groups for their outstanding achievements in the fight against penury.
The recipients include villagers, Party members dispatched to villages to fight poverty, grass-roots officials and college researchers. Some of them were honored posthumously.
Shi Jintong, a village Party chief in central China’s Hunan Province, accepted an award on behalf of his village. Shi’s village, Shibadong, is where Xi, during a visit in 2013, put forward the “targeted poverty alleviation” strategy that was instrumental in the success of China’s poverty eradication campaign. “I feel so honored to meet the general secretary again, yet I am confident at the same time as we have accomplished the task of poverty eradication,” Shi said.
But not all anti-poverty champions lived to see this day. Over the past eight years, more than 1,800 people died fighting poverty on the front lines.
Xi acknowledged these fallen heroes yesterday, saying that their sacrifice and contributions “will never be forgotten by the Party, the people and the republic.”
Building on its victory in eradicating poverty, China is moving on to push for higher-level development in its rural areas. Shaking off poverty is not the finish line, but the starting point of a new life and new endeavor, Xi said, demanding efforts to consolidate poverty alleviation achievements and initiate a dovetailing drive of “rural vitalization.”
China yesterday inaugurated a new Cabinet body on promoting rural vitalization, which was transformed from the State Council Leading Group of Poverty Alleviation and Development. Xi said efforts must be made to prevent any large-scale relapse into poverty.
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 沪ICP证：沪ICP备05050403号-1
- |
- 互联网新闻信息服务许可证：31120180004
- |
- 网络视听许可证：0909346
- |
- 广播电视节目制作许可证：沪字第354号
- |
- 增值电信业务经营许可证：沪B2-20120012
Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
