FROM EIR DAILY ALERT

China Will Achieve Poverty Alleviation, President Xi Confirms

March 7, 2019 (EIRNS)—Speaking today with deputies from Gansu Province, President Xi Jinping underlined the importance of reaching the goal of eliminating poverty by 2020.

“There should be no retreat until a complete victory is won,” Xi said. “Decisive progress has been achieved in the country’s tough fight against poverty over the past years, marking a new chapter in the poverty reduction history of mankind.” Xi stressed that the goal to eradicate extreme poverty must be achieved on time. He warned that the tasks ahead remain arduous and hard, as those still in poverty are the worst stricken. He also warned that “the practices of formalities for formalities’ sake and bureaucratism hamper the effective advancement of poverty reduction,” reported Xinhua. He further admonished against the tendency to celebrate short-term gains when it comes to addressing the problem of poverty and insisted that claims of success should be grounded in reality, and that the results of poverty-alleviation work must be able to stand the test of time.

Also today, Director of the State Council Leading Group Office of Poverty Alleviation and Development Liu Yongfu gave a comprehensive briefing on the success of poverty reduction over the last years, addressing a press conference on the sidelines of the annual “two sessions.” Liu described that between 2012 and 2018, some 80 million people had been brought out of poverty at an average of 13 million people a year. Of the nine eastern provinces, eight were now free of poverty. He said there are still 832 counties enmired in poverty. In 2016, China lifted 28 counties out of poverty; and in 2017, another 125 counties, and in 2018, an estimated 280 counties were likewise relieved of poverty. In 2013, some 128,000 villages remained in poverty, whereas by 2018, there were 20,000. Liu said the campaign had reduced poverty during that period by 85%, and the goal this year is to bring 10 million more people out of poverty. In 2019 the government will increase the funds devoted to poverty alleviation by 18.9%.