Turning poverty alleviation from a great dream into reality

As China rings in the New Year, it is racing against the clock to fulfill a promise its leadership has made: lifting 10 million rural residents out of poverty, which translates into more than 800,000 people a month, or about 20 every minute.

China had about 43.35 million people living below the national poverty line, that is, earning less than 2,300 yuan ($354) a year at the end of 2016. And it has pledged to eliminate abject poverty by the end of 2020, which means lifting at least 10 million people out of poverty a year.

This is a "figure-infested" article, but the numbers, while otherwise head-numbing, are heartening. Take, for instance, President Xi Jinping's New Year's speech, including a poem, which he delivered on Sunday. It contains a series of numbers: "How I wish I could have 10,000 houses to provide shelter for all who need it," he said, quoting poet Du Fu of the Tang Dynasty (618-907), adding that in 2017, about 3.4 million people were relocated from poverty-stricken areas and now live in new houses.