China, first country to triumph over poverty

AS MOST Filipinos decided to bury and forget the so-called ‘People Power’ last February 25, that illegally removed Pres. Ferdinand Marcos in 1986, the government of the People’s Republic of China was holding a different, “commendation ceremony,” in Beijing’s ‘Great Hall of the People’ to celebrate China’s “complete victory” on its over 4-decades campaign to eliminate ‘absolute poverty’ all over its vast territory.

With Pres. Xi Jin Ping presiding over the ceremony, the Chinese government presented awards and certificates to representatives of national honorary title recipients for their contribution to eliminating poverty, involving 1,981 individuals and 1,501 collective units.

From various reports in China’s state media since the last quarter of 2020, the Chinese government, under the leadership of the Communist Party, has lifted all of its rural poor people out of extreme poverty under the current standard, covering 832 counties, 128,000 villages, and more than 98.3 million people, the last segment of China’s more than 1.441 billion population living below the poverty threshold.

The elimination of poverty in China has been the principal objective of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) ahead of the centennial of its founding this coming July, centered on the creation of a “moderately prosperous society in all respects.”

‘Two assurances, three guarantees’

The struggle to lift all the Chinese people from abject poverty has always been the aim of the CCP as part of its socialist ideology and philosophy.

It was begun in earnest in 1978, with the rise to power of Deng Xiaoping and the country’s “opening up” to the West to hasten its economic development. From the outset, Chinese leaders have made it a point that the country’s economic prosperity must be tied to the alleviation of poverty.

The campaign was given further focus and emphasis when Xi Jinping became China’s president and ‘supreme leader’ in November 2012.

It was on the same month the following year, during a visit to Hunan province in Central China that Pres. Xi first formulated his strategy of “targeted poverty alleviation” (TPA), according to a historical background provided by CGTN, last February 23, 2021.

CGTN further reported, quoting Pres. Xi: “(To crystalize it (TPA)), one should ‘seek truth from facts, tailor measures to suit local conditions, give targeted guidance, and be meticulous about the work.’”

In order to avoid confusion among party workers and cadres as to what key indicators to use in the campaign, the CCP has since formulated Pres. Xi’s words into the slogan, “two assurances and three guarantees,” whereby “people don’t have to worry about food and clothing and have access to compulsory education, basic medical services and safe housing.”

Prof. Lin Wanlong, professor of economics and management at China Agriculture University, further expounds, “Who were these people and where were they located? If you are intent on leaving no one behind, then you have to locate each and every one of them and tailor relief measures accordingly.”

The key to the TPA is China’s extensive use of a “poverty registration system,” an online database that list and identify poor communities all over the country based on the parameters laid down by the CCP and the government.

And to further emphasize that poverty alleviation is a serious concern, in 2015, China’s State Council issued the ‘Decision on Winning the Fight Against Poverty’ in the next 5 years, anchored on Pres. Xi’s TPA, as the “critical strategic step to eradicate poverty.”

And the ceremony in Beijing last February 25, is a result of that policy declaration made 5 years ago.

‘Miracle in the annals of history’

During the ceremony last February 25, 2021, Pres. Xi was also quoted by Xinhua as remarking that China’s success is a “miracle in the annals of (human) history.” And he is still being modest about it.

Three years ago, in 2018, the United Nations, a bulwark of capitalism and imperialism, had to admit that China is way much ahead in meeting the UN sustainable development goal (SDG) of combatting global poverty by 2030.

As of 2018, the UN conceded that more than 853 million Chinese, based on the UN’s own parameters, had been lifted out of poverty, comprising 76 percent of the UN’s global poverty reduction goal.

In April of the same year, Dr. Tan Weiping, deputy director at China’s International Poverty Reduction Center (IPRCC), reported at a conference in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, that to meet the campaign’s main objective, the CCP and the government of China mobilized 128,000 “village work teams” (VWTs), equal to the number of rural villages all over the country that have been identified as needing government attention and help to alleviate their living condition.

The work teams involved 540,000 party workers and officials who were ordered to stay and live with the villagers for the next 2 to 3 years in order for them to fully comprehend the needs of the local households, made decisions on the spot and recommend further actions to higher authorities.

China looks ahead to 2049

But China never limited itself to making its own people prosperous, sharing its newly-developed wealth and prosperity to other countries in support of the UN’s SDG— a fact that no amount of Western Imperialism’s propaganda cannot hide or obfuscate, especially among the beneficiaries of China’s help and generosity.

Under Pres. Xi, the IPRCC, said Dr. Tan Weiping, had already provided 400 billion yuan (about US$60 billion) in foreign aid to more than 166 countries and international organizations; dispatched more than 600,000 aid workers to other countries and regions, completed some 2,700 anti-poverty projects overseas; trained more than 12 million people of other nationalities; and, provided medical assistance to 69 countries in Asia, Africa, Latin America and the former imperialist possessions in the Caribbean and Oceania.

Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, China, despite also being a poor country, already made good on the pledge made by Pres. Xi in 2015, during the ‘Global Poverty Reduction and Development Forum,’ of providing US$2 billion “to support developing countries in implementing the (UN) 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.”

At the end of 2015, China had also decided to forego debt payment on “governmental zero-interest loans of relevant least developed countries (LDCs), landlocked developing countries (LLDCs) and, small islands developing states (SIDS).”

Pres. Xi also committed to increase China’s investments in LDCs to US$12 billion by 2030.

With the success of its war against poverty that is not anchored on “profit” or as a “social palliative” — the essence of Western Imperialism’s anti-poverty philosophy that it also wants adopted elsewhere— China, under the CCP banner, is already looking forward to its goal for the next 100 years.

As Xinhua also reported: “In 2049, China will achieve its second centenary goal of building ‘a modern socialist country that is prosperous, strong, democratic, culturally advanced and harmonious.’”

That is how far ahead China’s leaders think. And that is why China is now the world’s new leader and model of development.

As China continues to progress, the more people all over the world will see the superiority of its “socialism with specific Chinese characteristics” over the bankrupt capitalist and ‘democratic’ European and US models.