Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, on Thursday said that China has accomplished its poverty alleviation target for the new era on schedule and achieved a significant victory that has impressed the world.

Through eight years of sustained work, China has lifted its entire population of rural impoverished residents under the current income standard out of poverty, and nearly 100 million poor people have shaken off poverty, Xi said while presiding over a meeting of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee.

China has removed all poor counties from its poverty list, and eradicated absolute and regional poverty, said Xi.

Global Champion of Poverty Reduction

Since the beginning of reform and opening-up in 1978, China has been adjusting the standard for absolute poverty to keep it in line with the country's social and economic development.

The current rural poverty line is 2,300 yuan (351.1 U.S. dollars) per person annually at the 2010 price level. The specific figure is subject to adjustment as the country's price levels change.

The CPC Central Committee has moved poverty alleviation to a more prominent position since the 18th CPC National Congress, adopted significant original and specialized measures, and fought the largest and most vigorous battle against poverty in history.

The nation's impoverished population was reduced from 98.99 million at the end of 2012 to 16.6 million at the end of 2018, reducing the proportion of poor people across the country from 10.2 percent in 2012 to 1.7 percent in 2018.

In 2019 alone, the country lifted 11.09 million people out of poverty.

Southwest China's Guizhou Province announced last week that its remaining nine impoverished counties had been lifted out of absolute poverty, meaning all registered impoverished counties in the world's most populous country have shaken off poverty.

Over the past 40-plus years of reform and opening-up, more than 700 million people in China have been lifted out of poverty -- more than 70 percent of the global reduction in poverty.

The country's poverty reduction success has been lauded by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, who called the achievements "very strong."

Innovation Poverty-alleviation Strategies

To achieve the goal of eliminating extreme poverty in rural areas by the end of 2020, China is carrying out a basic strategy of targeted approach, which requires officials at all levels to identify impoverished individuals and the factors that led to their poverty.

Each household or individual is given a tailored poverty relief plan. Capable and suitable officials have been selected to guide poverty relief work at different levels.

For example, officials with business experience were sent to poverty-stricken villages, while officials with specialized industrial knowledge were sent to villages with industrial bases.

Since 2012, over 2.9 million public sector officials have been sent from cities and towns to villages to fight poverty on the frontline.

The country is also improving the quality, efficiency and competitiveness of agriculture, carrying out rural development initiatives, and giving rural construction an important position in socialist modernization.

Meanwhile, China has strived to reduce rural poverty with technological innovations that help boost agricultural production. In the past five years, China has focused on the technical bottleneck of the agricultural industry and promoted more than 50,000 new crop varieties and technologies to increase the quality and efficiency of the agriculture industry in poor areas.

Challenges Ahead

The significant victory in poverty alleviation has provided a solid foundation for China to achieve its first centenary goal and has greatly enhanced the people's sense of improvement, happiness and safety, Xi said at Thursday's meeting.

During the poverty alleviation efforts, the CPC Central Committee has upheld the principle of putting people first, and has taken ensuring a moderately prosperous society for the poor and people of all ethnic groups as both the starting point and the final goal, Xi said.

The country still faces acute problems caused by unbalanced and inadequate development, as well as the onerous tasks of consolidating and expanding poverty alleviation achievements, according to the meeting.

Efforts will be made to ensure steady employment and enhance vocational skill training for people who have been lifted out of poverty, amid moves to strengthen cooperation between the country's eastern and western regions to boost employment, according to the meeting.

China will work to improve follow-up support for relocated people to ensure that they are able to settle down, stay employed and steadily amass wealth, according to the meeting.

At a press conference held on Wednesday, Ou Qingping, deputy director of the State Council Leading Group Office of Poverty Alleviation and Development, stressed the importance of efforts to optimize the monitoring-and-assisting mechanism to prevent people from falling back into poverty.

After winning a complete victory against poverty, the country will allow a transition period during which supportive policies and assistance for the poor will remain unchanged, with the overall stability of measures being maintained, Ou said. 

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