Contribution to global fight against poverty

Thursday is International Day for the Eradication of Poverty, which was introduced to promote awareness of the need to eradicate poverty and destitution worldwide. As countries reflect on what has been achieved and what needs to be done, China has enough reason to be proud of what it has contributed to the global efforts in this regard.

Compared with 2012 when China had a population of 98.99 million living in poverty, the figure was 16.6 million by the end of 2018. From the year 1978 when the reform and opening-up policy was launched, China has enabled 770 million rural villagers to cast off poverty in the past four decades.

In accordance with the United Nations' poverty line of $1.9 per person per day, China's contribution to the global poverty eradication efforts is more than 70 percent. China is also the first country to have fulfilled the UN's poverty eradication goal ahead of schedule.