War on poverty bears global significance

BEIJING: Over the past 70 years, China has made notable strides in reducing its poverty-stricken population.

On this year’s International Day for the Eradication of Poverty, which falls on Thursday, it is illuminating to look back on how China has come this far in poverty reduction and what its achievements mean to the world.

China has been a world champion on poverty reduction. Since the founding of the People’s Republic of China in 1949, it has lifted over 800 million people out of poverty, which represents over 70% of global poverty reduction.

Beijing has also promised to wipe out extreme poverty by next year, 10 years earlier than the deadline set by the United Nations in its 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its 17 Sustainable Development Goals.

A priority of China’s drive to end poverty is to guarantee food self-sufficiency for its 1.4 billion people.

To do that, China has worked hard to increase farmland productivity through strategy design and technological innovation, said a white paper titled Food Security in China released on Monday.

Official data showed that between 1949 and 2018, China’s annual total grain output rose nearly five times from 113 million tonnes to 658 million tonnes, while per capita output more than doubled to 472kg.

China did not stand still after it achieved food security. It has continued to improve the livelihood of its people in areas of health, education and women’s empowerment.

China’s poverty elimination experience has proven valuable to other nations that need to solve similar tough issues.

The precise poverty alleviation strategy is China’s main weapon in its war on poverty. With this strategy, China uses flexible policies to meet the needs of various groups of people in different parts of the country.

For example, to reduce poverty facing the elderly, the sick and the disabled, the policy is focused on knitting a stronger social safety net.

Meanwhile, the market has begun to play a vital role. Since 2015, with encouragement from the Chinese government, private enterprises have played a bigger part in numerous social investments to reduce poverty.

While blazing an efficient path for others to draw lessons from, China has promoted international cooperation to benefit more impoverished people. — Xinhua