BEIJING: Mabel Chinomona, president of the Senate of Zimbabwe, visited Northwest China’s Ningxia Hui autonomous region in July, a trip she described as “valuable” as she got to witness first-hand one of the most remarkable success stories of poverty alleviation and rural transformation in contemporary history.
During the tour, Chinomona, who is also a Political Bureau member and secretary of the Women’s League of ZANU-PF, the African nation’s ruling party, visited a paddy-fish ecological park, a green energy supply station and a coal-based new materials technology company. “The achievements we have witnessed in Ningxia provide practical evidence of the effectiveness of Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, particularly its emphasis on people-centered development and the pursuit of common prosperity,” Chinomona said.
What impressed her the most was the partnership between Southeast China’s Fujian province and Ningxia, which has become one of China’s most celebrated examples of East-West paired assistance in poverty alleviation.
In 1996, the Communist Party of China Central Committee launched a program to promote poverty alleviation cooperation between the more developed eastern region and the less-developed western region, as part of a broader national strategy to narrow regional development gaps and promote common prosperity.
Under this program, Ningxia and Fujian were paired together. President Xi Jinping, then deputy secretary of the CPC Fujian Provincial Committee, oversaw the progress of the cooperation.
Under his leadership, the two regions took the lead in establishing a joint conference mechanism and initiating mutual exchanges of officials through temporary assignments.
This cooperation gave birth to Minning township, the name combining the Chinese abbreviations for Fujian, which is “Min”, and Ningxia, which is “Ning”. Thanks to the sustained efforts of officials and residents of both regions, what was once a desolate wasteland is today a prosperous township of 66,000 people, where as of 2025, relocated residents boasted a per capita disposable income of more than 20,000 yuan ($2,945). By 2020, all 803,000 impoverished people in the autonomous region had been lifted out of poverty. With China entering a new phase of high-quality development, Fujian-Ningxia cooperation is moving steadily toward higher-quality growth. –The Daily Mail-China Daily news exchange item
