Zuoquan: The On-target Poverty Alleviation Model

Poverty eradication demands both tenacity and innovation. Zuoquan County, amid northern China’s Taiyang Ranges, is named after General Zuo Quan, who sacrificed his life in the battle against Japanese invaders in the Chinese People’s War against Japanese Aggression. On the poverty eradication battlefield of today, the people of Zuoquan carry forward the spirit of tenacity, commitment, and diligence in the county’s endeavor to help people rise out of poverty.

Slogans vowing to eradicate poverty are everywhere in Zuoquan.[Photo by Zheng Liang]

“Poverty reduction is the target of our work and the behest of our people.” These slogans are on walls everywhere in Zuoquan County, Shanxi Province. “Poverty reduction” is at the top of the local government’s agenda and constitutes a clarion call to everyone.

The incidence of poverty in Zuoquan is as high as 21.77 percent. This landlocked county is constrained by inadequate infrastructure and public services. Worst of all, people in certain areas subsist in conditions deemed by the UN as unfit for human habitation. Most families registered as impoverished live in a state of absolute poverty. Rising out of it to build a moderately well-off society seems to them an impossible dream.

In 2001 Zuoquan County was listed as a key county in the national program to reduce poverty. This has since been the main focus of the local government, especially after the 18th CPC National Congress, when the policy of on-target poverty alleviation came into effect throughout the country. The local Zuoquan government has formulated a slew of targeted measures in efforts to eradicate poverty by the end of 2018, and realize a moderately prosperous society by 2020.