Down-to-earth endeavors key to poverty alleviation goal

Setting a deadline for eradicating poverty requires confidence; especially, setting a very short one for eliminating "abject poverty".

However, the country has a proud record in poverty alleviation in the past more than three decades, which has given the current Communist Party of China leadership the confidence to set the deadline to eliminate any enduring poverty by 2020, ahead of its 100th anniversary in 2021.

President Xi Jinping's remarks on poverty alleviation on Friday show the CPC leadership is not only confident of achieving that goal, but also well aware of what needs to be done to lift the remaining about 40 million rural villagers out of abject poverty in the next three years.