-China’s eradication of extreme poverty a milestone in human history
-Living standards of the poor in China significantly improved
BEIJING: China’s State Council Information Office released a white paper on poverty alleviation on Tuesday morning.
The white paper is titled “Poverty Alleviation: China’s Experience and Contribution”. The paper said, China’s complete eradication of extreme poverty is a milestone in the history of the Chinese nation and the history of humankind.
China is home to nearly one fifth of the world’s population and its complete eradication of extreme poverty has made an important contribution to the cause of global poverty alleviation, said the white paper.
The paper further added that, the battle against poverty has been another great revolution in rural China, leading to historic and comprehensive changes.
The campaign saw an end to the backwardness of poverty-stricken areas, boosted overall rural development, resolved the greatest threat to success in achieving moderate prosperity in all respects, and laid a solid foundation for building a modern socialist China and realizing the second centenary goal, said the white paper.
Through poverty alleviation, there has been a substantial improvement in the incomes and welfare of the poor in China, said a white paper. Education, healthcare, housing and drinking water supplies are much improved, which have covered all basic needs and laid the foundations for future development, said the white paper.
The per capita disposable income of the rural poor increased from 6,079 yuan (about $928) in 2013 to 12,588 yuan in 2020, up by 11.6 percent per annum on average, said the paper.
The growth rate was 2.3 percentage points higher than the national rural average, the paper noted.
Access to good quality education for the impoverished has improved remarkably, the paper said. There are no dropouts in the countryside due to financial difficulties, while nine-year compulsory education is now available to all children from rural poor households, and the completion rate in 2020 was 94.8 percent.
The three-tier healthcare system at village, township and county levels has been improved, the paper said, citing that basic medical insurance coverage of the poor is now over 99.9 percent.The program of renovation of dilapidated rural homes has ensured safe housing for all the impoverished, and the program of safe drinking water for rural residents has secured supplies to 28.89 million poor in terms of both quantity and quality, and benefited 382 million rural population, the paper said.
From 2015 to 2020, tap water coverage increased from 70 percent to 83 percent, according to the paper.
It said that China’s ethnic minority areas have made notable progress in fighting poverty.
From 2016 to 2020, the number of the poor dropped by 15.6 million in the country’s five autonomous regions — Inner Mongolia, Guangxi, Tibet, Ningxia and Xinjiang — and three provinces with a large multi-ethnic population — Guizhou, Yunnan and Qinghai, said the white paper. The paper stated that extreme poverty was eliminated in all 28 of the minority ethnic groups with a small population.
Some ethnic groups, still at the later stage of primitive society when the People’s Republic of China was founded in 1949, leapfrogged to socialism and then again made great strides towards moderate prosperity in all respects, said the paper.
China’s poor areas have achieved sustained and rapid economic growth as the battle against poverty released the potential of these areas and injected vigor into their development, said the paper .
Poverty-stricken areas have seen notable improvements in their economic structure, said the white paper. Businesses that leverage local strengths have been growing and thriving, including such new forms as e-commerce, photovoltaic technology, and tourism, according to the paper. The economy in poor areas has diversified, and effective market supply has increased.
– The Daily Mail-China Daily News exchange item
