SCIO briefing on securing a decisive victory in poverty alleviation
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E-mail China.org.cn, March 13, 2020
Hong Kong Economic Herald:
Parts of the country have basically completed their poverty alleviation tasks, and some officials in charge of the work seem to think they can now somewhat relax with the job done. Does the accomplishment of a poverty alleviation task mean an end to the work of poverty alleviation? Thank you.
Liu Yongfu:
There is indeed such a trend. As more and more people, and poor counties, are lifted out of poverty, a small number of grassroots cadres and officials in charge of the poverty alleviation work might have thought that accomplishing the task would bring a relief for them. This tendency is true, but is not the mainstream. General Secretary Xi Jinping has pointed out this problem since 2018, saying we must not remit and slack off in our efforts. He has repeatedly stressed: "The last part of an endeavor is the hardest to finish." Generally speaking, grassroots cadres and those in charge of poverty alleviation locally have been keeping up their efforts.
Here are some data I'd like to share with you. A total of 99% of the working teams dispatched to various villages across the country are in place this year, and 97% of the cadres sent to villages have continued in their work despite the severe epidemic situation. They have mainly undertaken two assignments in the present situation. First, epidemic prevention and control; second, poverty alleviation. There is some relaxation perhaps, but is not the mainstream. We must always keep up our efforts and work harder just as required by General Secretary Xi.
As for your second question, poverty alleviation has its own special meaning. Its task is to eradicate absolute poverty that has remained unresolved in China for thousands of years, such as the basic survival problems due to lack of food and clothing, and the harsh environmental conditions for development, which are of an historical nature. However, this is not to say that there will be no poverty in China when absolute poverty is eliminated. After accomplishing the poverty alleviation task, China will shift its focus from addressing the challenges of absolute poverty to alleviating relative poverty, and next, we will address the development gap to prevent growing income disparity and achieve common prosperity. Different measures may be taken to eradicate absolute poverty and alleviate relative poverty, and the tough battle against poverty may not be the same as our routine work to reduce poverty. However, there will be no end to poverty alleviation, and we will continue working on this. Thank you.
Hu Kaihong:
Due to the time limit, we can only take two more questions.
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