President Xi Jinping Visits China’s Most Impoverished Areas, Says Goal To End Poverty by 2020 Will Be Met

April 24, 2020 (EIRNS)—Chinese President Xi Jinping conducted a four-day inspection tour from April 20–23 in northwest China’s Shaanxi Province, one of the country’s remaining areas of entrenched poverty, and urged the entire country to deploy to

“overcome the negative impact of the COVID-19 epidemic to ensure the country reaches its goals in poverty alleviation and the building of a moderately prosperous society in all respects.” according to Xinhua. The news agency said that on his tour, Xi “conducted research on coordinating COVID-19 control with economic and social development as well as poverty alleviation.”

Xi stated: “Being lifted out of poverty is not an end in itself but the starting point of a new life and a new pursuit.” He stressed the importance of ensuring jobs for the poor, and reaffirmed that the anti-poverty fight will be won in China in 2020. Some 850 million Chinese have been lifted out of poverty in the last 40 years, leaving only 10 million or so as of the beginning of 2020. In March of this year, Xi had told a symposium of the CPC Central Committee that ending poverty in 2020 was “a solemn vow” that must be fulfilled on schedule.

Xinhua added:

“Xi said relocation is essential for people in inhospitable areas to achieve strides in development. It is also an important approach to win the fight against poverty. He stressed the importance of securing employment for relocated people to settle down in their new home, get rich and not fall back into poverty.”

The specific area Xi toured is one of entrenched poverty, where relocation is often the only solution to the problem. One of the towns he visited consists of “1,346 households that have been relocated from hilly, geological disaster-prone or poverty-stricken areas across the town,” according to Xinhua. The overall Qinling-Bashan mountainous region is one of China’s 14 contiguous areas of extreme poverty, which Chinese officials have described as the “hardest nut to crack” in the final drive to end poverty.

Xinhua added: “Across China, more than 9.6 million poor people have been relocated to more inhabitable areas over the past couple of years as part of the country’s poverty alleviation efforts.”