Not an end, but a starting point
An old friend of China is in awe as the country approaches its long-held goal of eradicating extreme poverty
‘This is the most incredible transformation of one-fifth of the people of the whole planet in 40 years,” says Stephen Perry, chairman of The 48 Group Club in Britain and a contributor to eradicating poverty in China in recent decades.
China, with a population of about 1.4 billion people, has set a goal to lift all its rural population out of extreme poverty by the end of this year.
“This year is a very difficult year because you’re dealing with the most challenging parts of the poverty problem, the ones that have been left at the end to deal with,” Perry said.
Bench marks of poverty eradication in China include minimum annual incomes reaching 4,000 yuan ($600), people not worrying about access to food and clothing, compulsory education to be available for children, basic medical treatment to be available and for people to have safe living conditions, the State Council Leading Group Office of Poverty Alleviation and Development has said.
Challenges now present themselves, Perry said. In the short term, because of COVID-19, the number of poor in the world will rise, but “China is going the other way”.
Completing the building of a “moderately prosperous society” at the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China next year was one of two centenary goals set by the Communist Party of China Central Committee at the 18th National Congress in November 2012.
Carrying out targeted poverty alleviation is a key to achieving this goal.
Selfless dedication
Although COVID-19 has buffeted China’s society and economy, Perry said, the memory of suffering, trust in the country and the spirit of selfless dedication motivate Chinese people to overcome all challenges no matter how difficult the situation is.
“We have to remember that in dealing with the epidemic China was able to mobilize 40,000 doctors and nurses from all over China in a few days to fly to Wuhan in the face of grave risk to themselves.
“And I saw interviews with many of them. They were so excited to have the opportunity to be at the front line of a challenge like that. I’m sure that they left exhausted and drained but exhilarated by knowing what they have been able to contribute.”
In April, the World Bank said China had lifted 850 million people, about 70 percent of the world’s poor, out of poverty since reform and opening-up began in the late 1970s.
“It was an incredible thing to absorb,” Perry said. “It took me quite a long time to realize that the core of what China was doing in reform and opening-up was to enable China to be able to feed its people.”
For the past 70 years, China has been enabling the forces of production to meet the needs of the people, which is the “primary contradiction” China has faced domestically.
In the early 1950s, Perry’s father, Jack Perry, founder of the London Export Corporation, led 48 British business people to Beijing and helped build one of the earliest trade relationships between China and the West.
Icebreaking Mission
The 48 were the precursors of The 48 Group Club. The trip became known as the Icebreaking Mission, and club members were nicknamed Icebreakers.
Perry recalled his family’s experience with China and said the founding of the CPC was a response to the challenges the Chinese people faced in trying to give the country “some reasonable prosperity and safety”.
“The Party knew their job was to deliver a better life for the people of China. Moving hundreds of millions off the land and building an export economy were the first step.”
China has achieved all it needs to become a moderately prosperous society, Perry said, meaning it has a stronger economy, a new democracy that is being constructed, more advanced science and education, a better environment and a thriving culture, a better quality of life and greater social harmony.
“These are the basis for the innovation which will take China to become an advanced socialist economy and society that is well laid out in a modern Chinese form by President Xi Jinping.”
Poverty alleviation has always been a primary concern for President Xi, also general secretary of the CPC Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, who has said “no single poor area or individual shall be left behind.”
“The relationship of President Xi with poverty goes back to when he was just a young man,” Perry said. “Xi lived in poverty in Shaanxi and for many people that experience would break them.
“But for Chinese, with a wonderful depth of civilization and ability to withstand dramatically difficult conditions, Xi found the basis for who he is today, in my opinion.”
Four important principles
Xi, in his book Up and Out of Poverty, sets out four important principles: avoiding a poverty mentality; adopting development measures suitable to local conditions; the importance of strong leadership and coordination; and not wasting money on grandiose projects just because they may be popular.
Perry said these fundamental principles sound very simple and obvious, and “only a man who is very experienced can sum them up in such a simple way”.
“When I meet him I always think I’m meeting a man who never forgot the people who are very poor.”
Achieving the two centenary goals is key to realizing the Chinese dream of national rejuvenation, which is Xi’s transformative vision for China, an overarching unifying principle for the Chinese people.
Apart from realizing a moderately prosperous society, another centenary goal is to build China into a modern socialist country that is prosperous, strong, democratic, culturally advanced and harmonious by the time the People’s Republic of China celebrates its centenary in 2049.
In the long term, Perry said, challenges to China come mainly from the outside world.
He said there will be transformations in the domestic economy, and China will achieve its targets by 2049. However, there is apprehension about this in the outside world.
“The external contradiction with a Western world that fears the rise of China and the transformation of the world, and other countries that may also think that they can get better out of the world by being associated with the West are the challenges that China now faces.
“That is where I think the risk is greatest.” Over the past two years trade disputes between the United States and China have brought many uncertainties to the world economy, and in January the two countries signed their phase-one economic and trade agreement.
Great asset
“I think there is a period during which the West has to learn that China’s not for changing, and when they do they will realize that China can be a great asset.”
Until this year, before COVID-19 appeared, China accounted for about 30 percent of world economic growth, the National Bureau of Statistics said.
“Most of the rest of that growth has gone this year due to the pandemic, and China will (produce) 70 percent, 80 percent of world growth this year, I would think,” Perry said.
“The truth is the world needs China. That will be the single motivating factor for solving the problems of the next 10 or 15 years.”
China’s remarkable achievement could serve as a guide for eradicating poverty globally. Ana Revenga, senior fellow in the Global Economy and Development program at the Brookings Institution, who was deputy chief economist for the World Bank, said at a teleconference on the World Bank’s inaugural report “Poverty and Shared Prosperity 2016”: “If anybody can show the world how to do that last mile (of ending extreme poverty), it probably is China.”
President Xi has said: “Being lifted out of poverty is not an end in itself but the starting point of a new life and a new pursuit.”
Apart from reducing poverty, effectively preventing and controlling financial risks, and protecting the environment are the other two challenges China needs to successfully handle to achieve a moderately prosperous society.
“The system you have, which is known as the scientific method, is such an effective method,” Perry said, referring to socialism with Chinese characteristics, which enables the country to make decisions efficiently, organizes effectively and mobilize resources for important undertakings.
Perry said China headed the right way to be the first country to achieve its “own form of socialism”.
“And on the external side, I think that the world will move to recognize that President Xi’s philosophy of community of a shared future is actually very simple and very sensible,” he added.
Since Xi first proposed the vision of “a community of a shared future for mankind” in 2013, China has worked to build a new type of international relations.
The Belt and Road Initiative has been a platform for building the community and a new way of improving global governance and increasing mutual understanding and mutual benefits among different societies.
“The world is a better place if we work together rather than compete with each other,” Perry said.
I think there is a period during which the West has to learn that China’s not for changing, and when they do they will realize that China can be a great asset.”
Stephen Perry