【龙湾区】Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow of Poverty Alleviation in China

金品轩 2021-09-14 09:47:09

Human history runs forever like a river, witnessing both peaceful moments and great disturbances. As is shown by the large-scale documentary program Poverty Eradication, 72-year campaign of poverty alleviation in China can be roughly divided into three phases — yesterday, today and tomorrow.

“Yesterday” of poverty alleviation can be traced back to 36 years ago when a grass-root correspondent Wang Shaoju’s report on the poverty in Xiashanxi natural village received a great response nationwide. Then in 1984, the Central Committee of CPC issued the Notice on Helping Poverty-Stricken Areas to Change Their Situations which kicked off the overall poverty alleviation in China. Consequent years have witnessed a cross-century anti-poverty campaign of “removing poor-households” and “eradicating poverty-root” in an all-round way. Taking a close look at the cradle of China’s poverty alleviation initiative, the typical way was to directly send money and necessities to those in need without truly eradicating the root of poverty, which did not bring satisfying results as expected.

“Today” of poverty alleviation is undergoing dramatic changes — from “blood transfusion” to “hematopoiesis”. Rather than merely appropriating funds to the poverty-stricken areas, the government now focuses more on developing industries according to different local conditions, increasing employment rate, improving workers’ skills and so on. According to the 13^th Five-Year Plan, all impoverished rural residents and counties should be lifted out of poverty by current standards as scheduled. It was by no means easy, but we made it! With a significant investment, the pace of infrastructure construction and public service development in rural areas have been noticeably accelerated and local conditions have considerably improved as well. Decisive achievements have been made in poverty alleviation for building a moderately prosperous society in all respects.

“Tomorrow” of the poverty alleviation goes far beyond itself. It is about sharing the experiences with Chinese characteristics of poverty reduction, alleviation and eradication with the world and leading more people to a moderately prosperous society. Take the documentary program Poverty Eradication for instance, it has been continuously promoted to over 200 countries in 44 languages, serving as an example for developing nations to follow. But poverty alleviation is not all plain sailing. The greater difficulties are, the further we advance. United as one, we shall work harder. The 14^th Five-Year Plan has proposed the plan to “realize the effective connection between consolidating the achievements of poverty alleviation and rural revitalization” by 2025, elevating the poverty alleviation to an unprecedented strategic height of the nation. Tremendous changes are taking place everywhere and China is taking on a fresh look.

History will illuminate the road to the future. We are firmly convinced that our Communists has been and will continue to win the battle against poverty with determination, leading all the people onto the road of common prosperity in the foreseeable future.