Way out of poverty
UN exhibition shows China’s progress over past 40 years
Images of China’s achievements in poverty reduction are now on show at the United Nations.
An exhibition entitled “Better Life, Dream Come True — Poverty Alleviation in China” is running at the UN headquarters in New York.
Through more than 40 pictures, a 10-episode documentary video and detailed descriptions, the exhibition tells the typical stories of China’s targeted poverty alleviation and explains President Xi Jinping’s ideas on poverty alleviation. It also showcases China’s achievements in alleviating poverty and introduces China’s plans for global poverty reduction.
Visitors to the exhibition said the photos offer an opportunity to see how China came through in its efforts to eradicate poverty.
Durga Prasad Bhattarai, Nepal’s ambassador to the UN, wrote in the guest book that the exhibition is a “very inspiring and thoughtful sharing of experience”.
Megan Gilgan, deputy chief of staff of the UN Children’s Fund, said the photo of Chinese children learning how to wash their hands in school was her favorite and “very impressive”.
“We see China is dedicated to making sure schools are safe and healthy places for children. And this is important all over the world,” said Gilgan, adding that education is a very important part of poverty alleviation.
Gilgan said that China’s poverty alleviation efforts not only lift people out of income poverty, but out of multidimensional poverty.
“It’s not just people have money but they have access to schools, healthcare and they have all the things they need, they have strong families,” she said at the opening ceremony on Thursday. “Many of China’s experiences of how to do this on such a large scale so quickly is something that many countries could learn from.”
Forty years ago, China started reform and openingup and put the focus on poverty alleviation. Since then, 700 million people have been lifted above the poverty line.
Following the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China in 2012, the Chinese government launched a “battle against poverty”, guided by the principle of targeted poverty reduction highlighted by President Xi Jinping.
Effective measures
Sun Zhijun, vice-minister of the publicity department of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, gave a keynote speech at the ceremony. He pointed out that the poverty head count ratio had been reduced from 10.2 percent to 3.1 percent as of the end of 2017.
China has introduced effective poverty alleviation measures, such as resettlement, the promotion of e-commerce and dedicated government support, he said.
Chinese Ambassador to the UN Ma Zhaoxu said China accounts for 70 percent of the total population lifted out of poverty worldwide.
“With the most people lifted out of poverty, China achieved a leading position in realizing the UN Millennium Development Goals and made an enormous contribution to poverty reduction across the world,” said Ma.
Amina J. Mohammed, deputy secretary-general of the UN, said that with more than 800 million poor in the world, poverty reduction is a primary task in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
“For more than three decades, China has achieved tremendous results in reducing poverty,” she said.
With the most people lifted out of poverty, China ... made an enormous contribution to poverty reduction across the world.” Ma Zhaoxu, Chinese ambassador to the UN