Eliminating poverty, improving living standards, and achieving common prosperity is a fundamental task for socialism and an important mission of the CPC. Since 1949, and particularly from the late 1970s, the CPC has led the people in the battle against poverty and launched a massive poverty alleviation campaign. It has helped more than 800 million people escape poverty, an outstanding achievement in the history of poverty reduction.
The CPC has made a solemn promise that poor people and poor areas will enjoy moderate prosperity together with the rest of the country. Since 2012, the CPC Central Committee with Xi Jinping at the core has taken a people-centered approach to development and made poverty alleviation a priority. They have adopted many creative and unique policies and measures, and the battle against poverty has been massive in terms of scale and inputs.
The Decision on Winning the Battle Against Poverty, promulgated by the central authorities in November 2015, set the overall goals for poverty elimination by 2020. It proposed five targeted measures, to be employed in accordance with local conditions: boosting the economy to create more jobs for the disadvantaged; relocating those living under adverse natural conditions; providing eco-jobs for impoverished people; improving education in poor areas; and improving social security directed to poverty elimination.
Winning the battle against poverty was set as a task in the report to the 19th CPC National Congress. The report demanded greater efforts to mobilize the energies of the whole Party, the whole country, and the whole of society, and to persevere with targeted poverty alleviation and elimination measures. China would continue the working mechanism whereby the central leadership makes overall plans, provincial authorities take overall responsibility, and city (prefecture) and county authorities ensure implementation, and it would strengthen the system for making heads of Party committees and governments at all levels assume overall responsibility for poverty alleviation.
Poverty alleviation is an all-encompassing campaign. China pays particular attention to helping people build up confidence in their own ability to lift themselves out of poverty, and ensures that they can acquire the knowledge and skills they need in order to succeed. It will strengthen collaboration on poverty alleviation between the eastern and western regions, and provide focused assistance to areas of extreme poverty.
By the year 2020, three targets were to be reached – all rural residents living below the current poverty line lifted out of poverty, all poor counties freed from poverty, and overall regional poverty eliminated. Poverty alleviation should reach those who truly need it and deliver genuine outcomes.
The year 2020 witnessed China's decisive victory over extreme poverty. Thanks to eight years of determined endeavors, the country had accomplished the task within the set timeframe. All rural residents living under the current poverty line had been lifted out of poverty, and all 832 impoverished counties removed from the poverty list, thus eliminating absolute poverty and overall regional poverty and transforming previously impoverished areas. Standards of living have notably improved, and the people have a stronger sense of gain, happiness and security.
As the world's most populous developing country, China has been an active supporter and promoter of the global poverty reduction effort. China's achievements in eliminating poverty and helping other countries fulfil the goals set in the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development have made an impressive contribution to global poverty reduction.
