China Daily Global Edition (USA)
Poverty relief success a valuable example for other nations
At the latest Vision China event on Thursday, a panel of global observers endorsed the central role played by the Communist Party of China in eradicating domestic poverty and said the benefits can ripple across borders as the world races to reach the United Nations’ no-poverty goal by 2030.
Beate Trankmann, the resident representative of the United Nations Development Programme in China, said the zero-poverty milestone was achieved through the Party’s “targeted, bottom-up approach”, which serves as a valuable example for other nations.
The 750 million Chinese who were rid of absolute poverty over the past four decades made up roughly three-quarters of the global total who left poverty behind during that period, a significant accomplishment in efforts to end poverty globally, she said in a video speech while addressing the event, held by China Daily.
The theme of the event was “The Way Forward after Beating Poverty”.
She said that the UN’s development agency is working to promote the nation’s poverty-curbing expertise.
Less than a month ago, President Xi Jinping declared complete success in China’s protracted, arduous battle to eliminate extreme poverty — a benchmark requirement in China’s effort to build a “moderately prosperous society in all respects” before the Party’s centenary this year.
That achieved, the Party has embarked on a new journey to build China into a modern socialist country.
“By continuing to apply the same level of resolve as it has in eradicating extreme rural poverty, China can … continue to contribute to sustainable development globally,” Trankmann said.
While addressing the event, Zhou Shuchun, publisher and editor-in-chief of China Daily, said that poverty is a “worldwide, centuriesold problem that has plagued mankind since the beginning of history”.
“The Chinese experience contributes to the world’s wisdom, knowledge and solutions for establishing a new paradigm for poverty reduction,” he said.
China recently unveiled its 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-25), a blueprint for development priorities. Zhou said China will boost the coordinated development of urban and rural areas and realize a smooth transition from poverty alleviation to rural vitalization during the period.
He also said that China will work hard with other countries to build a community with a shared future for and to establish a more resilient, open and inclusive world economy in an effort to create a clean, beautiful world with lasting peace, universal security and common prosperity.
Robert Lawrence Kuhn, chairman of the Kuhn Foundation, said China’s success in bringing the COVID-19 outbreak under control
and ending extreme poverty was based on three principles — CPC leadership, General Secretary Xi Jinping’s commitment and CPC mobilization.
Kuhn, winner of the China Reform Friendship Medal, said he has told stories of China for more than three decades and has shared his observations about China’s anti-poverty endeavors. “China’s poverty alleviation is the best story to undermine biases and disrupt stereotypes about China,” he said.
“Just as future historians may well look upon China’s fight against the coronavirus as a turning point in worldwide efforts to contain outbreaks of novel diseases, future historians may well recognize China’s fight against poverty as a turning point in worldwide efforts to eradicate extreme poverty,” he added.
Wang Xingzui, executive vicepresident of the China Foundation for Poverty Alleviation, talked about its efforts to fulfill six of the goals in the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development — no poverty, no hunger, good health and well-being, quality education, clean water and sanitation, and decent work and economic growth.
He shared stories about the beneficiaries of some of its signature overseas programs and said China is fulfilling its “due international responsibility”. The programs collectively have benefited more than 1.3 million people in 24 countries and have increased people-to-people connectivity, he said.
Wang said it will continue implementing domestic development programs with nongovernmental resources to consolidate poverty reduction achievements and facilitate the national rural vitalization strategy.
David Monyae, director of the Centre for Africa-China Studies at the University of Johannesburg in South Africa, spoke highly of China’s development achievements, saying it has emerged as one of the most crucial players in the international arena.
“Africa has so much to learn from China on how to uplift the majority of Africans from poverty,” he said.
“The CPC has taken another Long March, this one toward prosperity and global acclaim.”
Monyae said that as China has gone from being a poor country to its current status as the secondlargest global economy, its achievements merit respect. “The CPC has blazed a trail that no other nation has. Of most importance, its achievements inspire hope in the developing world,” he said.
As a China Daily reporter, Erik Nilsson has spent 15 years exploring poverty alleviation in remote areas in every provincial-level region on the Chinese mainland.
A Chinese Government Friendship Award laureate, he shared his experience as a reporter in the earthquake-ravaged cities of Wenchuan, Sichuan province, and Yushu, Qinghai province. Wenchuan was hit by a magnitude 8 quake in 2008, and Yushu endured a magnitude 7.1 temblor in 2010.
He said China has been the main driver of global poverty alleviation. “I expect China’s development will continue to accelerate to advance virtually every dimension of human well-being, not only within China but also the world.”
Vision China was launched in 2018 and serves as a major podium for promoting China’s voices via the media group’s position as a globalized, all-media platform that features multilingual and multichannel distribution.
Seventeen previous Vision China events have been held in cities including Beijing, Tianjin, Macao, Hangzhou in Zhejiang province and Lanzhou in Gansu province, as well as in New York, London and Johannesburg.
Africa has so much to learn from China on how to uplift the majority of Africans from poverty. The CPC has taken another Long March, this one toward prosperity and global acclaim.”
David Monyae, director of the Centre for AfricaChina Studies at the University of Johannesburg in South Africa