Even when battle is won, war against poverty must continue
On Wednesday, as we celebrate the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty, which is also the fifth Chinese Poverty Relief Day, an intensive campaign is under way throughout China to meet the official deadline for lifting all its impoverished people and regions out of poverty by 2020.
Millions of Party and government officials have been dispatched to the grassroots, in both urban and rural areas, to help win the "decisive battle against poverty". With compulsory quotas and criteria, they are racing against time so the country can bid a proud farewell to poverty on schedule.
China has an impressive record in the global fight against poverty, having lifted hundreds of millions of people out of poverty over the past four decades. In a sense, reform and opening-up itself have been the most inclusive and most successful poverty relief program humanity has ever seen. Yet given the country's population base, the scale of abject poverty remains stunning even after consecutive, dramatic reductions in recent years.