‘Fight poverty, improve lives’

Premier Li stresses need to help poor in region’s renewal campaign

BEIJING: Premier Li Keqiang called for firm efforts to alleviate poverty and improve people’s lives as China forges ahead with a campaign to revitalise industrial bases in the country’s “rust belt”.

He made the remark during a two-day visit to Jilin province that began on Monday in the impoverished Zhenlai county, south of the Greater Khingan Mountains, where temperatures are lower than 20°C.

Achieving victory in targeted poverty alleviation is a strategic arrangement by the Communist Party of China Central Committee, with Xi Jinping at its core, Li said.

Jilin has been relentless in promoting stable economic and social development in recent years, in the hope of rejuvenating old industrial bases in north-eastern China, he said, adding that full revitalisation should be accomplished under the guidance of Xi Jinping’s Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era.

During a visit to poverty-stricken Yinghua village on Monday, the premier asked families about food, heating, income and medical insurance reimbursements.

He also presented them with gifts bought at a local market, and extended his wishes for a happy Spring Festival.

In the home of one villager, Li sat on a kang, a traditional brick bed heated by a stove, and chatted with farmers, college students, former migrant workers and the heads of agricultural cooperatives about the difficulties they face.

The poverty alleviation campaign should mean that “the kang of all poor families should be warmed on such a cold day”, he said.

“Conditions should be created to make everybody optimistic for a better life.”

When villagers told Li about founding a cooperative to raise geese, he encouraged them to further expand opportunities to increase local incomes by making agricultural products and starting businesses.

Delayed salaries for migrant workers was also a concern for the premier.

While visiting a long-distance bus station in Zhenlai on Monday afternoon, he asked migrant workers returning from Zhejiang, Jiangsu and Liaoning provinces where they had worked and whether they had received their full payment.

Conditions should be created to make everybody optimistic for a better life. Li Keqiang