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1st LD: Poverty reduction highlights China's progress in human rights: white paper

Xinhua, October 17, 2016 Adjust font size:

Poverty reduction is the most telling evidence of China's progress in human rights, as the number of citizens China has raised from poverty accounts for 70 percent of the world's total, said a white paper issued on Monday.

Over the past 30 years and more since the launch of reform and opening up, more than 700 million Chinese people have been raised from poverty. The number of rural poor had fallen to 55.75 million by 2015, with the incidence of poverty dropping to 5.7 percent, said the white paper published by the State Council Information Office under the title "China's Progress in Poverty Reduction and Human Rights."

The UN Millennium Development Goals Report 2015 shows that the proportion of people living in extreme poverty in China fell by half from 61 percent in 1990 to below 30 percent in 2002, and on down to 4.2 percent in 2014, said the white paper.

Notable improvement has been made to infrastructure and basic public services, and poverty-reduction mechanisms have been innovated, thus contributing to the guarantee of the basic rights of the impoverished population. This has laid a solid foundation for achieving a moderately prosperous society in all respects, according to the white paper.

While combating poverty at home, China also actively helps other developing countries to address their poverty problems. Over more than six decades since the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949, China has provided nearly 400 billion yuan (about 59.36 billion U.S. dollars) to 166 countries and international organizations, sent more than 600,000 aid workers, given medical assistance to 69 countries, and aided more than 120 developing countries in realizing the Millennium Goals, said the paper.

In addition, on seven occasions China has unconditionally canceled interest-free loans to heavily indebted countries and least developed countries, said the paper.

After years of trials and experimentation, China has accumulated a wealth of experience in promoting human rights through development-oriented poverty reduction, and established a new model of development-oriented poverty alleviation with Chinese characteristics, the paper noted. Endi