China Focus: Poverty relief a boon for millions in rural China

For villager Xie Yanbao in Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, growing sugarcane and corn had been the sole provider for his poverty-stricken family of six. But two years ago, things began to change.

He got a loan of 80,000 yuan (12,300 U.S. dollars) in 2014 from the local poverty relief project and started to raise chickens. In only two years, he became one of the richest men in his village.

Xie is among 52 million rural residents who benefit from the country's determined and effective poverty relief work in the past three years.

More than 600 million people were lifted out of poverty in the past three decades, about 70 percent of the total global achievement. China became the first developing country to meet the millennium development target.

Yet the battle against poverty is unlikely to end soon.

For the next five years, the government has named poverty reduction one of its top priorities, vowing to help the remaining 70 million poor people, who live below the poverty line of 2,300 yuan in annual income, shake off poverty and enjoy essential social services by 2020.

"To win the poverty relief battle is the bottom line for building a moderately prosperous society," said Liu Yongfu, head of the State Council Leading Group Office of Poverty Alleviation and Development.

COMBINED EFFORTS

Villager Yang Caihua has been living in a mountain shelter more than 1,700 meters above sea level for decades. He never imagined he could one day live in a two-story building with telephones and lamps. His dream came true in 2014.

The country's program to relocate people living in the poorest regions has allocated millions to people like Yang, placing them in better living conditions and providing them with housing, healthcare, education and employment.

During the relocation process, the government coordinated with different departments to carry out relief plans. The Finance Ministry increased fiscal expenditure, the Ministry of Water Resources ensured safe drinking water and the Ministry of Land and Resources plans land use.

Financial institutions, enterprises, NGOs and private investments were also mobilized to join the long-lasting battle against poverty.

Companies like Tencent and Alibaba have triggered an Internet revolution in remote villages and are helping peasants try their luck in booming e-commerce by selling their agricultural products to online shoppers nationwide.

Meanwhile, officials at all levels have been told to meet their poverty alleviation targets or face sanctions, the first time they have been given such obligations.

In 2014, 430,000 experienced government officials were sent in 125,000 teams to impoverished villages to become "champions" of fighting poverty.

PRECISE SOLUTIONS

Villager Nie Zhonghua from Guizhou Province may not know what precision poverty relief is, but he surely has experienced its results. Last year, he went from being 200,000 yuan in debt to earning an annual income of over 100,000 yuan.

Thanks to the precision poverty relief program, he received specific technical support from vegetable cooperatives and loans from a local bank to build a greenhouse.

"For us, just giving money might not necessarily help, but supporting us in running a business definitely does, " Nie said.

With economic growth slowing down and the income gap widening in some areas, the fight against poverty has entered a new phase focusing on targeted, precise solutions tailored to suit different regions and groups.

Identifying the needs of the poor is the first step in the poverty relief battle and only by fully understanding the problem can policymakers deliver the targeted measures proposed by the central authorities for the 13th Five-year Plan (2016-2020), said Wang Sangui, a poverty relief specialist at Beijing's Renmin University,

Access to water, power, the Internet, education, healthcare and public services all need improvement in poor areas. Especially needed is a system to care for those "left-behind" in the scramble for urbanization -- children, women and the elderly.

"Socialism is our political and institutional advantage," said Liu Yongfu, "We are confident that we'll win the war against poverty, and our dream for common prosperity will come true." Endit