SCIO briefing on white paper 'Poverty Alleviation: China's Experience and Contribution'
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E-mail China.org.cn, April 13, 2021
New York Times:
When I went to southeastern Gansu, I found many families who had been helped by the poverty alleviation program. If they were registered as extremely poor in 2015 and 2016, but if they became poor in 2017, they could not get into the program. Are you going to make it easier for people to enter or are you going to re-register those who are extremely poor? And second, just as you announced today, is China's poverty alleviation program practical for other developing countries that may not have as much financial resources or organizational resources as China? Thank you.
Wang Zhengpu:
Thank you for your questions. I will answer your first question and Mr. Xia will answer the second. China's poverty alleviation program contains a lot of effective methods and experience. After the critical battle of poverty alleviation began, we had plenty of lively and practical cases, which made the battle diversified in term of forms, and effective in results. The experience can be summarized into the following aspects, which can be learned from by the international community.
First, adopting a people-centered philosophy. The CPC strives for the goal of ensuring a happy life for the Chinese people. That is the purpose and mission of the CPC. In alleviating poverty, the whole Party united together and, under this guiding philosophy, concentrated the strength from all sectors to promote good lives for the people. I think this experience is very important.
Second, highlighting poverty alleviation in national governance. The CPC has always regarded China's common prosperity as its target, and poverty alleviation as an important task for ensuring national peace and stability. It has highlighted poverty alleviation when setting its policies and guidelines, and when formulating five-year plans and national plans for medium- and long-term development. The Party has pooled national resources to advance this cause. Especially since the 18th National Congress of the CPC, the CPC Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core has prioritized poverty eradication in its governance, strengthened top-level design, increased fiscal investment and mobilized people from all walks of life. An institutional system for reducing poverty has been built, which has effectively supported the smooth advancement of poverty alleviation.
Third, eradicating poverty through development. There is a saying in the poverty alleviation cause: "Poverty alleviation should be taken as the greatest opportunity for development." Development plays a decisive role in poverty alleviation. We must address the problem of unbalanced and inadequate development through economic development. Since the PRC's founding in 1949 and especially since the launch of reform and opening-up in 1978, the country has witnessed rapid economic and social development, with the economy and national strength growing steadily, which has won global recognition. This economic development has greatly promoted poverty alleviation, laid a firm foundation, and provided solid support for large-scale development-driven poverty alleviation efforts.
Fourth, pressing ahead with poverty alleviation based on the actual conditions and a realistic appraisal of China's situation. China has set its poverty threshold and its poverty alleviation goals and strategies in a scientific way, and worked to create better ideas and methods. It has advanced this undertaking step by step and with steady efforts. After socialism with Chinese characteristics entered a new era, General Secretary Xi Jinping proposed the strategy of targeted poverty alleviation. The approach shifted from broad-brush policies to targeted measures based on specific conditions. The model of poverty alleviation changed from mainly relying on external support to a more sustained, self-motivated effort. The assessment system has shifted focus from regional GDP as the main indicator to the genuine results of poverty alleviation. The methods and experience are all based on China's situation. I consider this to be an important experience for other countries' poverty alleviation work as well. Every country and region has its own conditions, on which its poverty alleviation must be based.
Fifth, letting poor people play the principal role. This encourages them to play their part, since they are the main players in eliminating poverty. China has inspired its people living in poverty to strive for prosperity and has provided them with the necessary education, so that they have the ambition to emerge from poverty and the tools to succeed. With education and training provided by the government, improvements to poverty alleviation methods, and the building of an incentive mechanism, poor people are encouraged to rely on their own efforts to escape poverty.
Sixth, pooling all resources to create synergy. This is the political, systematic and organizational advantage of the CPC. I mentioned just now a slew of practices such as the eastern-western collaboration, fixed-point poverty alleviation carried out by government institutions and enterprises, and the campaign of "10,000 businesses helping 10,000 villages." Other political parties, federations of industry and commerce as well as prominent individuals without party affiliation have leveraged their strengths to contribute intellectual and material support. All sectors of society have united with common purpose and acted in unison to care about poor people and care for the cause of poverty alleviation.
We have summarized the six methods above as reference for the international community in alleviating poverty. As for the registering of people as poor, this is crucial in targeted poverty alleviation. I will let Mr. Xia answer this question.
Xia Gengsheng:
Thank you for your questions. It is fair to say that targeted poverty alleviation holds the golden key to securing victory against poverty and is also an innovative and most significant means during this latest battle against poverty. Identifying and registering people in need is the first step of targeted poverty alleviation. As we know, identifying people in need is a weak link that exists concerning our poverty alleviation work in poor areas. This is a dynamic process that involves preliminary identification, relatively accurate identification, and then accurate identification which cannot be achieved overnight. Since the launch of identification and registration projects in 2014, a total of 29.48 million poor households and 89.62 million poor people have been identified. For the first time, China has identified the distribution of its poor population, the cause of their poverty, and their individual needs. Between August 2015 to April 2016, we reviewed our work, disqualifying those ineligible for poverty alleviation, while also adding those who met the conditions but went overlooked. These procedures have been adjusted annually since 2017 in a bid to improve the accuracy of our work.
This shows that China's identification of poor households is dynamic, rather than a once-and-for-all thing. This is of crucial importance regarding how we identify targets, no matter whether it is during our battle against alleviating extreme poverty or the consolidation of the results of poverty elimination. Our identification methods involve three aspects. First, poor households are encouraged to apply for help themselves because they best know their difficulties and weaknesses. Second, grassroots officials are in the best position to report on the situation on local conditions as their daily work is closely related to the lives of poor people. Third, data-matching from different sectors can also help us identify the poor. Through big data analysis such as sudden and drastic medical expenses or the plummeting of income due to unemployment, we can identify, intervene, and support those in need promptly and help them apply for assistance. In addition, we also set up the "12317" hotline to allow for the supervision and reporting of misconduct in poverty alleviation work. Individuals who are eligible but weren't included in can call this number so that we can check and solve the problems. Thank you.
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