Coherent policies seen as key to poverty alleviation

China has achieved a landmark development milestone by ending absolute poverty over the past decades and lifting approximately 800 million people out of destitution — a figure representing roughly 75 percent of global poverty reduction targets agreed upon at the United Nations. The scale and speed of this transformation are unprecedented in history.

The significance is both practical and symbolic. It shows that a large, populous nation can eliminate extreme poverty through sustained, systematic policy rather than exceptional circumstances. For the Global South — where over 80 percent of the world's population lives and where poverty reduction remains a core development imperative — China's experience is a powerful and instructive reference point.

China's achievement did not stem from a single intervention but from a coherent, mutually reinforcing set of policies. Within the overarching framework of reform and opening-up, the strategy combined high economic growth with targeted rural intervention, inclusive development principles, agricultural modernization and sustained productivity gains. These elements worked in concert: Broad growth raised average living standards, while targeted measures ensured that the most marginalized populations were not left behind.

This integration of macro-level growth strategy with micro-level targeting is arguably the most instructive aspect of China's experience. Poverty reduction was treated not as a residual outcome of economic expansion but as a primary policy objective, requiring direct administrative attention and dedicated resource allocation.

Ending poverty is one challenge; preventing relapse is another.

China has put in place several concrete mechanisms to secure the progress that has been made. A dynamic monitoring system identifies households at risk of falling back into poverty, enabling early intervention. Ongoing industrial and economic support is channeled to formerly poor regions to ensure that development is structurally embedded rather than dependent on short-term transfers.

The social protection architecture has also been strengthened. This includes the minimum livelihood guarantee program, medical insurance subsidies for low-income households, and education assistance for vulnerable families. Together, these mechanisms are designed to mitigate the principal risks of poverty relapse — illness, natural disaster and economic shock — thereby consolidating the gains already achieved rather than treating them as permanent by default.

Broader implications

The broader implications for developing nations are clear. Poverty alleviation, equitable growth and inclusive development must be central to any national development strategy, embedded within a wider framework of structural transformation and sustained economic expansion. Poverty reduction is not a peripheral concern; it is Sustainable Development Goal 1 within the UN's 2030 Agenda — the foundational objective on which much of the broader framework depends.

China's experience shows that when a nation prioritizes this goal with sustained political commitment and institutional implementation over time, the eradication of absolute poverty is achievable. Countries will differ in their circumstances — geography, institutional capacity, historical conditions and the external environment all matter — but the underlying principle holds: Systematic, long-term effort directed at the poorest populations yields measurable and durable results.

It is equally important to note what China's model is not. It is not a transferable blueprint to be applied wholesale. Rather, it demonstrates what is possible when development strategy treats poverty reduction as a central, measurable objective rather than a hoped-for by-product of growth. Each nation must identify the interventions appropriate to its own political economy. What China offers is evidence of ambition and outcomes, not a universal template.

At the international level, China's achievement reframes the global development debate in at least two respects.

First, it challenges the assumption — prevalent in some development economics literature — that eliminating absolute poverty in large, complex economies requires generational time scales. The Chinese case has substantially compressed that timeline, with implications for what the international community should regard as achievable within the SDG framework and beyond.

President Xi Jinping's The Governance of China, volumes I to V, offers an authoritative source on China's opening-up and reform, and the nation's development strategies and policies provide primary insight into the strategic thinking and political philosophy behind China's poverty alleviation.

Second, the achievement shifts the center of gravity in development knowledge. For much of the postwar period, the dominant frameworks for poverty reduction originated in Western academic institutions and multilateral organizations. China's experience — increasingly documented by both Chinese and international researchers — provides an empirical basis for approaches rooted in the developmental realities of the Global South. "Four Decades of Poverty Reduction in China (2022)", a joint publication by the World Bank Group and the Development Research Center of China's State Council, the nation's Cabinet, synthesizes the process, data and outcomes with substantial academic rigor.

Finally, ending absolute poverty globally requires more than sound domestic policy. It demands renewed commitment to the 2030 Agenda, a global governance architecture that genuinely incorporates the voices of the Global South, and the conditions of peace and development, without which shared prosperity cannot take root. China's achievement demonstrates what national ambition can accomplish; the international community awaits equivalent resolve and action.

The author is former senior minister and special adviser to the prime minister of Ethiopia.

The views do not necessarily reflect those of China Daily.