Xi: We’ve eliminated extreme poverty

BEIJING: Chinese President Xi Jinping has declared victory in the country’s drive to eliminate extreme poverty, a major goal for the ruling Communist Party of China (CPC) as it approaches its centenary in 2021.

Xi announced the verdict at a meeting of the seven-member CPC politburo standing committee, the highest decision-making body in China, on Thursday, official news agency Xinhua reported on Friday.

“China has removed all poor counties from the poverty list, and eradicated absolute poverty and regional poverty,” Xi was quoted as saying.

The announcement is a propaganda victory for the Communist Party - and a personal one for President Xi - capping an eight-year anti-poverty drive, and coming in a year in which

China’s economy has been battered by the Covid-19 pandemic.

It is part of China’s efforts to, what the CPC calls, a “moderately prosperous” society - possibly the most critical component on which its political legitimacy among the 1.4 billion people in China depends.

“We have achieved in a timely manner the poverty alleviation goal of the new era,” Xi said at the meeting. “Through eight years of sustained work, China has lifted all rural poor populations under the current standard out of poverty and nearly 100 million poor people have shaken off poverty.” The anti-poverty drive has to be sustained, the meeting discussed, according to the Xinhua report.

Chinese government statistics say the country has lifted some 850 million out of poverty, contributing over 70% to global poverty reduction, in the last few decades.