China's anti-poverty victory has lessons for the world

Many of those who attack China do not even try to imagine what it means to govern one and a half billion people. Leading a country with a fifth of the world's population is a daunting task. Consider also that China is not particularly rich in resources; it has a difficult topography and a varied climate.

Of course, all this ignores the main wealth of China - its hardworking and talented people. It was this resource which the PRC leadership used for a fantastic leap in the Chinese economy and the establishment of China in the international arena.

However, the main task was and remains the social well-being of the Chinese people. President Xi Jinping recently announced a complete victory over extreme poverty in China. Over the past eight years, about 100 million people have crossed this line, which was the result of joint efforts by the leadership and people of the PRC.

Despite the global pandemic and economic recession, China managed to fulfill all its tasks and achieve this result as planned by the end of 2020. The basic recipe for all poverty alleviation programs is China's successful application of social benefits to the population and the creation of millions of jobs.

Against the backdrop of increasing political and economic pressure from the United States, the Chinese economy continues to show impressive results. However, the success and effectiveness of the Chinese system is well understood by Xi, who called the results of the fight against poverty "another miracle that will go down in history."

Anyone familiar with the situation in the Chinese provinces should understand that fulfilling the promise of the Communist Party of China to its people was a very difficult task. The battle to raise the standard of living of the population cost the state billions, and its leadership, huge efforts and sleepless nights.

Xi personally made inspection trips around the country to check the economic and social development of the most backward regions. Getting rid of poverty, as he has repeatedly stressed, is not an end in itself, but the starting point of a new life and a new aspiration. No poor area or individual, he said, should be left behind. People who lived in poor areas have always felt special attention and care from the leadership of the country.

Poverty is over. Now, according to Beijing's plans, it expects to build a society of average prosperity by 2035.

How did the most populous country in the world manage to achieve these unprecedented results?

The fact is, in China all government programs are being implemented strictly on schedule - the need to eliminate poverty in the country was announced back in the ‘70s. And China has systematically and consistently been solving this problem.

First of all, there was the accumulation of capital and resources. Since the 1980s and ‘90s, when China began to grow rich and became a "global technology factory", the tasks of improving the standard of living were not forgotten.

With the onset of the second decade of the 21st century, it became clear that China is capable of solving global problems.

China's experience in fighting poverty can be useful for developing and even some developed countries, and some should learn some lessons for themselves. For example, they can invite Chinese experts and conduct quality monitoring with them to understand the current situation and make decisions in the field of poverty eradication. It will be much easier for developing countries to go through this path, because there is already a ready-made recipe for overcoming poverty - the Chinese model.

I am sure many of the developing countries would like to lead their people out of poverty but are unable. The main reason is not so much a lack of financial resources, but rather a lack of access to an effective model of poverty eradication. Now this model is available to all peoples of the world.

China, solving its internal problems, does not forget to provide support to its partners. Recall Beijing's significant contribution to the development of the economies of underdeveloped African countries. It was China that sent medical experts to help in the fight against the pandemic in 15 African countries, signed agreements with 12 African countries to ease their debt burden and reduced or canceled arrears due at the end of 2020 on interest-free loans of another 15 countries on the continent.

We see how the Chinese leadership is changing the quality of life not only of the Chinese people, but also of peoples in other countries. This is an immense task only those who know how to work, who love their country and their people can do. The current Chinese authorities have all this in abundance, and have successfully introduced innovative technologies in the field of public administration.

And now, as the West continues to pursue its aggressive policy against China, China's successful experience in the fight against poverty also speaks of the obvious delusions of such a policy. It testifies to the high social responsibility of Beijing and is an excellent example for other countries.

Seymur Mammadov is the director of the international expert club EurAsiaAz and editor-in-chief of Azerbaijan's news agency Vzglyad.az.

The opinions expressed here are those of the writer and do not necessarily represent the views of China Daily and China Daily website.

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