A praiseworthy achievement

At the recent annual meetings of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank, Jim Yong Kim, president of the World Bank, said that China’s accomplishment in pulling 800 million people out of poverty was a historic achievement and “one of the great stories in human history”. With China as the major contributor, the ratio of people living in extreme poverty in the world has dropped to less than 10 percent from 40 percent, Kim said.

The World Bank chief’s words are not superficial praise but recognition of what China has succeeded in doing over the past decades.

As the world’s largest developing country, if China had not substantially reduced its impoverished population, the world would still have a huge number of people living in poverty, and the world’s economic development, stability and the international political and economic order would have been under even greater pressure.

To lift 800 million people out of poverty in a few decades demonstrates China’s progress in its efforts to build a moderately well-off society. Poverty reduction based on offering financial assistance rather than targeted measures aimed at promoting self-development usually sees those who are lifted out of poverty slide back in again.

Unlike in the rest of the world, to more effectively facilitate poverty alleviation, China has managed to set up a broad system of targeted support for the people still living in poverty. This includes promoting employment and helping them start their own businesses as well as offering services and support.

Despite the different national conditions they face, China’s experiences, as suggested by Kim, can offer lessons to other developing countries.