Commitment by the government lays solid foundation for winning the battle
(LI MIN / CHINA DAILY)
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Mose Dati rose early on the morning of May 13, 2020, cleaned his house and yard thoroughly, locked the door, climbed down a 2,556-step steel ladder and walked into a new chapter of his life.
The then 51-year-old and his wife, living in Atulieer, a mountainous village atop a cliff in Zhaojue county, Liangshan Yi autonomous prefecture, Sichuan province, were moving into a new home in a building at a newly constructed relocation community in the county, some 60 kilometers from the foot of the cliff.
That day, 344 villagers from 84 impoverished families moved to their new homes.
Atulieer, known as "cliff village", is situated at an altitude of 1,600 meters, and a rattan ladder used to be the only way to access it.
In May 2016, photographs of children using the ladder to get to school were published by Beijing News, quickly going viral and drawing national attention to the village and its residents.
As China was conducting a poverty alleviation campaign at the time, Atulieer became a focus of this national strategy.
At the end of 2016, the rattan ladder was replaced by a steel one. More facilities were built and services introduced, including towers providing 4G communications signals, and banking services to assist farmers.
Targeted strategies such as herding sheep, planting olive trees and developing tourism, were introduced to help local people earn more.
Last month, a local official told news media outlet TheCover, which is based in Sichuan, the annual per capita income in Atulieer had reached 10,400 yuan ($1,448). The village has also changed its name to Xuanya, which translates as "cliff village". Tourists flock to the area to see the ladder.
In November 2020, the Sichuan provincial government announced that residents in Zhaojue had been lifted out of poverty.
Children learn paper-cutting at a relocation site for poverty alleviation in Xingye county, South China's Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region, Jan 18, 2022. (PHOTO / XINHUA)
Milestone reached
The changes witnessed in the village reflect the efforts made by the nation to alleviate poverty.
On Feb 25 last year, President Xi Jinping announced that China had secured a complete victory in its fight against poverty. The eradication of absolute poverty was a milestone made possible after an unprecedented nationwide campaign led by Xi.
Some 98.99 million rural residents, 832 impoverished counties and 128,000 villages have been lifted out of absolute poverty since the 18th National Congress of the CPC in 2012, enabling the nation to meet its poverty reduction target set in the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development 10 years ahead of schedule.
China is home to nearly one-fifth of the world's population. Its complete eradication of extreme poverty is a milestone in the history of the nation and of humankind, making an important contribution to the cause of global poverty alleviation, according to a white paper released by the State Council last year.
Incomes among poor residents have continued to rise. Per capita rural disposable incomes grew from 6,079 yuan in 2013 to 12,588 yuan in 2020, with an annual rise of 11.6 percent.
Areas where ethnic groups form the majority of the population have made notable progress in fighting poverty. From 2016 to 2020, in the five autonomous regions (Inner Mongolia, Guangxi Zhuang, Tibet, Ningxia Hui and Xinjiang Uygur) and three provinces (Guizhou, Yunnan and Qinghai) with large multiethnic populations, the number of poor people has fallen by 15.6 million.
According to the national poverty alleviation survey carried out from 2020 to last year in 22 provincial regions, poor households now have adequate food and clothing all year round and a proper supply of nutritious food.
To eradicate poverty, China has also focused on improving access to good-quality education for its impoverished population.
According to the white paper, there are no school dropouts in the countryside because of financial difficulties. Nine-year compulsory education is available to all children from poor rural households, and the school completion rate in 2020 was 94.8 percent.
The campaign also helped 25.68 million poor residents renovate their dilapidated homes, and offered medical treatment to more than 20 million people.
The government also provided living and nursing subsidies for 24 million people in financial difficulties, or with severe disabilities.
Students read at a primary school in the Gongshan Derung and Nu autonomous county, Yunnan province. (YANG ZONGYOU / XINHUA)
Innovative strategies
"To win the poverty alleviation battle, China has launched a basic strategy — targeted poverty alleviation," said Liu Yongfu, former deputy head of the State Council Leading Group Office of Poverty Alleviation and Development.
Liu, a member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, the nation's top political advisory body, made the remarks last month at an event held by the CPPCC National Committee for its members to deliver speeches to summarize China's achievements made since the 18th National Congress of the CPC.
We answered questions such as who should help, who should be helped, how to help, and how to evaluate the results.
Liu Yongfu, former deputy head of the State Council Leading Group Office of Poverty Alleviation and Development
"The basic requirement of targeted poverty alleviation is to accomplish efforts in six areas — accurately identifying the poor, arranging targeted programs accordingly, using capital efficiently, taking household-based measures, dispatching poverty alleviation officials based on village conditions, and achieving set goals," he said.
The concept of "targeted poverty alleviation" was raised by Xi in 2013 during an inspection tour of Hunan province, when he visited Shibadong, a Miao ethnic village labeled as poor at the time.
The term refers to measures that include a system to keep track of every household and individual in poverty to verify that ways of helping them are having the desired effect.
"We took five poverty eradication measures — boosting the economy to provide more job opportunities, relocating poor people from inhospitable areas, compensating for economic losses associated with reducing ecological damage, improving education in impoverished areas, and providing subsistence allowances for those unable to shake off poverty through their own efforts alone," Liu said.
"We answered questions such as who should help, who should be helped, how to help, and how to evaluate the results," he added.
Liang Xiaomin, an associate research fellow at the Center for International Knowledge on Development, said the targeted poverty alleviation strategy adopted by China since 2013 played a crucial role in solving the "last mile" problem, becoming China's strongest weapon in its battle against poverty.
She added that the government's commitment to eliminating extreme poverty laid a solid foundation for victory in this battle.
"Since 2013, the Chinese government has made more commitments toward eradicating extreme poverty than at any other time in the previous 40 years," Liang said.
"China's experience in conquering poverty primarily included an inclusive development model and government-led poverty alleviation strategies.
"The nation concentrated its efforts to improve inclusiveness on the agricultural sector, the industrial sector and urbanization."
The experiences of Mose Labo, the Sichuan villager, demonstrate the inclusive development model to shake off poverty.
When his village was provided with access to the internet in 2017, he started to record his daily activities, such as herding sheep and climbing the cliff, and posted footage of them on livestreaming platforms.
He quickly became well known on the internet, and in 2018, the village, with its stunning geographical features, made efforts to develop rural tourism, helping local residents earn more.
Contribution to world
According to a report released in April, China has lifted nearly 800 million people out of poverty over the past four decades based on $1.90 per day — the global poverty line — accounting for about 75 percent of global poverty reduction during this period.
The report, jointly published by the Ministry of Finance, the Development Research Center of the State Council, and the World Bank, said China's mode of poverty alleviation has provided a number of experiences and references for other countries.
According to the State Council white paper, China launched the Belt and Road Initiative to expand deep and high-level regional cooperation on economic and social development, and to help eligible countries better achieve poverty alleviation. According to a World Bank study, the initiative will help 7.6 million people out of extreme poverty and 32 million out of moderate poverty in countries taking part in the initiative.
Last year, China changed the name of the State Council Leading Group Office of Poverty Alleviation and Development to the National Rural Revitalization Administration.
As the change in the name implies, the nation is now leading the people to stride toward the pursuit of a wealthier life with a sustainable foundation.
Zhang Yi and Xinhua contributed to this story.
