Spotlight: China's poverty relief figures to cure West's selective amnesia on human rights

Poverty relief has long been a priority by the Chinese leadership of all levels, and unsurprisingly it has been included in China's 13th Five-Year Plan (2016-2020).

However, China's achievements in alleviating immense poverty along with its other human rights feats are victim to the West's selective amnesia.

On Thursday, the United States and 11 other countries (mostly from the West) attacked China's human rights record at the United Nations.

One of the greatest human rights successes a country could hope for is the elimination of poverty. On this front, China's record is unquestionable. Unfortunately, combatting poverty is one area of human rights routinely overlooked by Western countries, particularly the United States.

The following are some figures and facts we hope would alter the West's tired and dated view of human rights in China (although we won't hold our breath).

While delivering a government work report to some 3,000 lawmakers from across the country last Saturday, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang unveiled a draft outline of the 13th Five-Year Plan, which offered a detailed roadmap for poverty eradication.

According to the work report, China has improved living standards by narrowing the urban-rural income gap and offering basic health insurance to every single one of its people.

Furthermore, thanks to the detailed recording keeping of its poor population and the establishment of its poverty information network in 2013, China has lifted more than 100 million rural residents out of poverty in the past five years, and over 300 million people in rural areas have gained access to safe drinking water.

To explore more sustainable and targeted measures to eliminate poverty, a number of local governments have even included poverty alleviation in worker evaluations.

According to Premier Li, China will focus on lifting more than 10 million rural residents out of poverty in 2016, including over 2 million poor residents to be relocated from inhospitable conditions.

The budget for the central government to alleviate poverty will also be increased by more than 43 percent.

Additionally, one of China's major goals in the next five years is to lift every rural resident out of poverty and create over 50 million jobs in urban centers.

Chinese President Xi Jinping also recently emphasized the need to protect the environment and maintain ethnic cultural diversity in efforts to eradicate poverty. He also called for a focus on education as the best way to ensure no one returns to poverty ever again.

Over the next five years, efforts will be made to improve infrastructure in regions home to ethnic minorities as well as develop industries that would make the most use of local resources, all in a bid to forge competitive edges and enhance the ability for self-development.

Health care is another area of focus. To prevent rural families from falling back into poverty as a consequence of high medical costs, the Chinese authorities have rolled out the "healthy China" strategy to end the illegal profit chain between hospitals and drug suppliers and ban doctors from prescribing expensive but unnecessary drugs.

In October 2014, President Xi vowed to allocate more medical resources at the community level and promote equal access to public health services that are safe, efficient, convenient and affordable.

All in all, China's poverty reduction resolve is more steadfast than ever. As Xi said early in February, "not a single impoverished family is to be left behind on our path to ending poverty."

The achievements cited above as well as the country's future goals have inspired leaders from under-developed regions in the country, including Chen Changxu, the mayor of Bijie, an extremely poor city in southwestern Guizhou Province.

Chen's city is a trial zone for poverty alleviation measures by the State Council in 1988. Alreadly 1.9 million people have been lifted out of poverty from 2011 to 2015 in Bijie.

"I am sure we could even do more in the battle against poverty in the next five years," said Chen, who is also a deputy to the National People's Congress.

His remarks were echoed by fellow lawmaker Bao Hongyi, a primary school teacher from Cangyuan Wa Autonomous County in the southwestern province of Yunnan.

"I look around everyday, and I see new school buildings and new teaching equipment. Students now get a free breakfast and teachers in rural areas get better pay," she said. "There are new changes every day."

The benefits of China's initiatives have gone beyond borders. On March 5, Graziano da Silva, director general of the Food and Agriculture Organization lauded the agency's cooperation with China on poverty reduction, saying the partnership has "provided more support for food security, poverty reduction and sustainable agriculture in the last three years." Endi