According to a meeting led by President Xi Jinping on Friday, China’s goal to eradicate poverty by 2020 can be achieved provided that governments exert efforts based reality and with a down-to-earth attitude.
The national poverty relief efforts are faced with many obstacles. Among these challenges are insufficient supervision over fund spending and precision measures that are directed at the poorest, based on the meeting.
The meeting was held by the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee. It was headed by President Xi who is also the general secretary of the CPC Central Committee.
Briefings on the assessment of poverty alleviation work by provincial-level Party committees and governments for the previous year were heard in the meeting.
Lifting every Chinese out of poverty has been placed on top of the agenda of the China’s central government. From 2013 to 2016, more than 55 million people were alleviated from poverty.
Consequently, China’s poverty rate decreased from 2012’s 10.2 percent to 4.5 percent at the end of last year. Based on estimates, more than 40 million Chinese are still living in poverty.
In 2015, a person with less than 2,855 yuan ($414) annual income, or $1.13 per day, was regarded as living below China’s poverty line. It was lower than the international poverty line of $1.90 daily, which utilizes purchasing power parity exchange rates.
In a study session held by the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee last Feb. 22, Xi emphasized the significance of precision efforts in the fight against poverty.
Xi said that in the years to come, China’s poverty relief effort "faces a daunting task" as "poverty alleviation is getting more difficult as it is coming to an end."
The meeting last Friday proposed new requirements for the national relief work which includes the strategy of targeted poverty relief with increased precision.
According to the meeting, efforts must be made to institute files on the individual situations of impoverished people and policies effectively directed to the causes of poverty should be planned. In addition, exceptional measures should be taken to address the most severe problems.
The Chinese government must exert realistic efforts and have a humble attitude to eradicate poverty by 2020.