What they say

Editor's note: The Publicity Department of the Communist Party of China Central Committee invited four grassroots Party members to share details of their involvement in China's decadeslong effort to curb rural poverty at a news conference in Beijing on Tuesday.

At the outset of the targeted poverty alleviation campaign, some did not understand or support the national policy. We spent more than 10 days visiting them from village to village, patiently explaining the aid to them. Now, they live in spacious and bright homes complete with infrastructure and public services. Gone are the difficulties locals once had in traveling, seeing doctors, attending schools and accessing water supplies. They have felt the campaign's true intentions and benefits. The follow-up assistance that relocated farmers have received makes them convinced that better lives are yet to come. During a visit to collect feedback, some of those who once opposed the campaign presented us with hada－a piece of silk used as a greeting gift－and thanked us in the Tibetan language.

Guo Xiaorong, leading poverty alleviation official in Nangqen county, Qinghai province

Over the past 11 years, I have won the support of my fellow villagers by leading them to develop local industries to bolster their income. By 2020,95 poor households and 327 poor people in the village had all escaped poverty. The village's poverty rate plummeted from 20 percent to zero, marking a historic moment. What happened in my hometown is a shorthand for what has unfolded in rural regions nationwide under the Party and government's leadership. The experience is also my most valuable one over the past decade. I will continue to bear in mind the instructions of President Xi Jinping and fight for rural vitalization with my fellow villagers.

Yang Ning, a college graduate who returned to her home village in the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region to lead the local poverty fight

After graduating from an agricultural college in Fujian province, I was sent to rural areas. I also served in local government, Party organs and research institutes. I quit politics to study juncao technology in an effort to help the poor and smaller ethnic groups in isolated and border areas escape poverty. I landed a major success in 1986. After more than 30 years of unremitting efforts, juncao can be used to cultivate fungi and feed livestock. The grass can also be used as a fuel and a biomaterial, and has played a critical role in restoring the ecosystem. Breakthroughs have been made in the Inner Mongolia autonomous region, one of four major regions that have fueled sandstorms across the country.

Lin Zhanxi, who invented technology to promote the growing of juncao, a grass that can be used to cultivate edible and medicinal fungi and fight desertification, at Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University

Poverty relief is not just about helping others, but fighting together for a common ideal. In the battle to end rural poverty, more than 1,800 poverty relief officials died on duty, including 209 in Guizhou. But that didn't intimidate me or my colleagues. Instead, we overcame numerous difficulties and fought bravely. The spiritual power involved has deeply inspired me. As one working in the aviation sector, my dream was to serve our country by making it powerful in aviation. But I felt lucky to have this opportunity to work at the forefront of curbing poverty. It is an honorable duty that I cannot escape. I myself was born into an impoverished household and know the pain of impoverishment.

Wang Zeyong, an aviation engineer deployed to head the poverty relief effort in Shuijing village, Puding county, Guizhou province