'Arduous tasks' lie ahead in poverty fight

Remaining poor areas will be 'most difficult', so use practical steps, Xi tells NPC deputies

The toughest battle that President Xi Jinping might face in the next two years, judging from his remarks at the top legislature's annual session, will be eliminating poverty in the world's most populous country.

"We are facing tough and arduous tasks to reduce poverty in the following two years, and the remaining are the most impoverished and difficult places, which are hard bones to chew," Xi said during a discussion on March 7 with lawmakers from Gansu province.

Apart from less-developed Gansu, Xi also mentioned poverty reduction and rural vitalization in his talks with National People's Congress deputies from Henan and Fujian provinces.

"I have visited many impoverished rural places. I always asked, 'What do you need?'" Xi said while talking with a village official from Henan on March 8. "We should make practical efforts to carry out the tasks of poverty reduction now and then move forward," he said.

It's rare for Xi to emphasize the same issue in talks with deputies from three different places during annual sessions of the National People's Congress. He often focuses on one major topic for each province.

Xi warned that officials should neither cheat in their evaluation of poverty reduction work nor make unrealistic promises to poor people.

According to the president, the criteria of poverty reduction is to see that the basic living needs of rural poor populations are met and that such people have access to compulsory education, basic medical services and housing.

Last year, Xi was elected as an NPC deputy by the People's Congress of the Inner Mongolia autonomous region, a less-developed area of the country. He explained that his participation in the election in Inner Mongolia reflected the Party's determination to fight poverty.

China has set the goal of lifting all the country's rural impoverished people out of poverty by 2020, which will be the first time in thousands of years of Chinese history that extreme poverty will have been eliminated.

According to China's plan, roughly 10 million could be lifted out of poverty each year. Last year, a total of 13.86 million rural poor people were lifted out of poverty, including 2.8 million people relocated from inhospitable areas.

Since Xi was elected as general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee in November 2012, poverty relief has always been on the top of his agenda. In Xi's own words, "On the march toward common prosperity, no one must be left behind."

Xi's deep feelings for the poor derive from his experiences at an early age - from 1969 to 1975, he lived and worked in Liangjiahe, an impoverished village of Shaanxi province, amid a campaign launched by late chairman Mao Zedong that asked urban youths to experience life working in rural areas.

To realize the goal of eliminating poverty by 2020, China is carrying out the basic strategy of a targeted approach, which requires officials of all levels to identify those who are actually impoverished and the factors that led to their poverty.

Each household or even family member is given a tailored poverty relief plan.

In the past years, more capable and suitable officials have been selected to guide poverty relief work at different levels. For example, officials with business savvy were sent to poverty-stricken villages, while officials with specialized industrial knowledge were sent to villages with an industrial base.

China has also adopted various means to reduce poverty, including e-commerce, financing, tourism, relocation and improvement of infrastructure.

Jan Willem Blankert, author of China Rising: Will the West Be Able to Cope?, spoke highly of China's contribution to the world's poverty reduction.

"China has with its long growth spurt already contributed a lot. We always say that China's strong growth has 'lifted 400 million (that's the figure of a few years ago) out of poverty'," he told China Daily.

In addition to poverty reduction, Xi also stressed the importance of rural vitalization during his talks with NPC deputies from Henan.

The general goal of rural vitalization is to modernize agriculture and rural areas, Xi said. The government should take measures to promote the mutual flow of talent and capital between urban and rural areas, he added.

Yao Jinbo, CEO of 58.com, China's largest online classified marketplace, said the government's rural vitalization strategy has brought great opportunities for his business. Yao said his company plans to build online classified ad platforms in more than 40,000 rural towns. Through these platforms, farmers will be able to release such information as job vacancies and sales of agricultural products, he said.

"The infrastructure in rural areas is becoming better and better," he said.

In his talks with NPC deputies from Inner Mongolia, Xi told the government to maintain its strategic focus on protecting the environment and never seek economic development at the cost of destroying the environment.

Tom Harper, doctoral researcher at the University of Surrey in the United Kingdom, said China has tried to improve its international status through green development.

"China is unquestionably trying to enhance its credibility as a green nation," he said.

Contact the writers at anbaijie@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily 03/14/2019 page1)