Generosity Without Borders Foreign missions actively participate in China’s effort to alleviate poverty
Traditional Pakistani costumes, souvenirs from Greece, Russian gourmet food and Egyptian handicrafts were just some among a wide variety of goods and products on display at the Love Knows No Borders International Charity Sale 2019, an annual event initiated by Qian Wei, wife of Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi. Nearly 90 embassies and representative offices of international organizations in China and 50 Chinese enterprises and public institutions participated in this 11th edition of the event on October 27, 2019, in Beijing.
The international products at this event were all sold for charity, with the revenue from the sale going toward assisting poverty alleviation in Yunnan Province, southwest China.
Speaking at the opening ceremony, Qian said the charity sale had become a window for different countries to showcase their cultural and ethnic diversity over the last decade. It had also “grown into a platform for the Chinese people to interact with the world at close range, and a gathering for all those with love and kindness to offer,” she said.
Since its inception in 2009, the event has raised over 22 million yuan (approximately $3.3 million) to finance infrastructure construction projects in Jinping and Malipo counties in Yunnan.
For the past 28 years, the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) has been partnering with foreign governments, international organizations, and overseas Chinese in its effort to assist the fight against poverty in Yunnan, raising more than 400 million yuan ($60.9 million) as poverty alleviation fund. The charity sale is just one example of this commitment.
Officials on the ground
The money they raised has been earmarked for specific projects. The MFA also regularly dispatches staff members to Yunnan to live and work there with local people for a certain period of time, and one of their responsibilities is to ensure the raised funds are used for most needed development projects. As the 18th team, Wang Weiyu, 39, and Xue Wei, 40, arrived in the province to serve respectively as the deputy county head of Jinping and Malipo for a two-year period. Different from their former diplomatic positions in Liberia and Germany, they are now on the front line of a tough battle: the battle against poverty. For more than a year, Wang and Xue have been working hard with their colleagues, including on weekends, for the sole purpose of helping villagers get out of absolute poverty.
The language barrier was the first challenge they faced. To facilitate communication with local people, the two diplomats spent a year learning to speak the local dialect. To quickly become aware of each villager’s living conditions, they went to visit everywhere they would work as soon as they arrived. They also learned as much as they could by carefully reading local government reports and records.
Their efforts helped them better understand the local people’s real needs and best allocate the aid funds to projects ranging from food and clothing, education, health, overall village improvement, industry, and training. They also make sure that the projects are carried out according to the sponsors’ will and are accountable to them.
Education top priority
Together with the general improvement in villagers’ livelihoods, the MFA has prioritized education as “the primary means of eradicating poverty inherited from generation to generation,” according to Wang Weiyu. Of the 26 programs funded by the MFA in Jinping in 2020, 10 are in the education sector.
Over the past 28 years, 179 million yuan ($27.3 million) have been spent on education and training projects in Jinping and Malipo.
For example, the renovation program of the First Primary School in Jinping County is a testimony to the strong friendship between China and Equatorial Guinea. Built in 1918, this century-old school was renovated with Equatorial Guinean funding of nearly 4.9 million yuan ($747,000) in 2016, which significantly improved its condition. The school can now accommodate 2,267 students in
45 classrooms (up from 1,600 students in 32 classrooms previously), and the staff has grown from 86 to 107 employees.
Having been involved in Sino-african cooperation projects in Liberia for five years, Wang Weiyu was very moved during his first visit to the school. “I was amazed to see that the Sino-african friendship could help the local communities to such a great extent. It opens up the field of possibilities with a different perspective on the solidarity between China and Africa,” he said.
Overseas Chinese, too, are very concerned about local children’s education, as evidenced by the Malipo County Ethnic Middle School. Since 2018, the Chinese community in South Africa has been supporting the 140 students at the school with scholarships of 1,000 to 1,500 yuan ($152 to $228) a year. The students from disadvantaged families are selected from among the brightest students in the county.
In addition to education, industrial development is also a priority on the agenda of Wang and Xue. “Although this path is riskier, it is the only approach to a sustainable way out of poverty,” said Wang.
In the village of Xiaopingzhai in Malipo, the creation of the Jiaming Tea Production Cooperative, with the MFA’S support, has been immensely beneficial to the local community, as villager Huang Liming can attest. In the past, this father had no option but to move away from home to find a job in city areas. Now he can work in his home village and stay with his family. “This job [at the cooperative] allows me to earn more money and take my children [to school] and be there for them when they need me. I don’t want to go far away from my family anymore,” he told Chinafrica.
Local tea planters from low-income Yao ethnic families can also sell their fresh tea leaves to the cooperative, without having to travel long distance to remote sites, as they did before. The cooperative generates a turnover of 6 million yuan ($913,800) every year.
In addition, Jinping County also promotes its unique assets in eradicating poverty. This year, the county received the honorary title of “China’s Land of Longevity.” The MFA is now trying to promote this title to enhance tourism in local areas that are regarded as fountains of youth, due to locals living longer, healthier lives.
The entire population of both counties now lives above the poverty line. But the MFA’S commitment is far from over. “It is a great honor for me to witness this historic moment. But we still have a long way to go to sustain rural revitalization and achieve prosperity,” said Wang Weiyu. CA