Poverty has plagued mankind for a long time. The Chinese nation has always longed to alleviate poverty. The year 2020 is the target year for China to secure a decisive victory in building a moderately prosperous society in all respects and achieve the goal of complete poverty eradication. A rural population of more than 800 million formerly under the poverty line will emerge from poverty.

China has a vast territory, a large population, and great diversity. Alleviating poverty demands pinpointing the root causes of poverty and adopting targeted measures to provide assistance to those in need. Thanks to targeted poverty alleviation measures over the last seven years, especially after the decision to win the fight against poverty was made by the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council at the end of 2015, the rural population living below current poverty line dropped from 98.99 million at the end of 2012 to 5.51 million at the end of 2019. The number of poverty-stricken counties has decreased from 832 to 52. When it fulfills the task of poverty alleviation this year, China will have achieved the poverty eradication goal of the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development 10 years ahead of schedule.

Escape from poverty is not an end but the starting point of a new day and new pursuits. It is necessary to continue promotion of the effective integration of poverty alleviation and rural revitalization strategies to ensure greater numbers of people benefit from the fruits of reform and development.

Female-heavy group photo of villagers from Wuying, a Miao ethnic village on the border of Guizhou Province and Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, who participated in the construction of a local public infrastructure project. (HUANG XIAOBANG)

A STEEP CLIMB OUT OF POVERTY

Young Yi man etching out a better life on the cliffs

By Wang Zhe

Mose Labo performs a tightrope walk on the railing of the steel stairway. (JIANG HONGJING)

Mose Labo from the Yi ethnic group grew up quite poor. In his early years, he lived in a small village high in the mountains, barely passed school exams, and eked out a living by raising goats. He never imagined moving into a spacious home and becoming famous on the internet.

The ‘Cliff Village’

Mose Labo lives in a “cliff village” in Zhaojue County, Liangshan Yi Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan Province. The Ancient Tea Horse Road passes through the heart of the Liangshan mountainous area in southwest China and continues to serve as a critical route leading to Yunnan Province and Southeast Asia.

But the tall mountains blocked communication, which greatly hampered local progress while many other places of China were developing quickly. The isolated cliff village, tucked away in the Guli Grand Canyon, was built into the side of a mountain. Two centuries ago, the builders settled there to avoid wars, and the abodes have remained perched on the cliff ever since.

Climbing the rattan ladders to access the cliff village is an essential experience for anyone visiting Guli Grand Canyon. In the past, most villagers lived in places at an altitude of more than 1,400 meters, and some homes were even located at 2,400 meters above sea level.

Before 2016, 17 linked sections of rattan ladders were the easiest way for villagers to get in and out. The two rattan ladders near the village connected end-to-end reached up to nearly 100 meters. Villagers know of at least 10 people who have fallen and died there. So it was concerning when an elementary school was built at the foot of the mountain, requiring children to climb down the rattan ladders hanging along the cliffs to reach the school.

On March 8, 2017, when meeting representatives from Sichuan Province at the Fifth Session of the 12th Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) National Committee, Chinese President Xi Jinping specifically asked about poverty alleviation work in Liangshan Yi Autonomous Prefecture. He said that after learning about the cliff village from news reports, he had been concerned about the transportation situation and life there.

Three years later, reporters ventured to the cliff village again. After heading north from Zhaojue County into the deep valley, it took the reporters two hours to reach the foot of Shizi Mountain. They saw that the rattan ladders had already been replaced with steel stairs.

The steel stairs resembled railroad tracks laid vertically into the sky. From the top, a beautiful river winding through the mountains is visible. Mose Labo and his uncle Mose Uha were waiting to welcome the reporters with wide smiles. Mose Labo has curly hair and wears an earring, as is tradition for adult men of the Yi ethnic group.

“It was difficult to get teachers to work here long-term because of the harsh living conditions, and I dropped out after my fourth year of primary school,” Mose Labo admitted sheepishly. “I could not find a good job elsewhere because of my poor educational background, so I had to raise goats to make a living.”

“It is hard to find a wife here because of the poverty, but divorce is extremely rare.” Now the father of three, Mose Labo described how male villagers would help escort the bride to the groom’s place on the clifftop in years past.

According to traditions of the Yi ethnic group, the youngest son should stay with the parents after all the other children wed. Five years ago, Mose Labo, as the youngest son, had to return from Guangdong Province where he worked as a migrant worker to take care of his parents. When he returned, the cliff village was identical to the place in his childhood memories. He climbed up the rattan ladders to a dilapidated house with a leaking roof and no furniture except for an iron bed. The whole village lacked electricity and running water, so internet seemed like quite a luxury.

“Potatoes dominated my diet,” Mose Labo laughed. He raised goats and chickens and sold them. Mose Labo had to tie the goat to his back and climb down the ladders to reach the market. Even with youthful strength and agility, it still took him nearly half a day to get there. Even he set out early in the morning, he would arrive at noon when the market was beginning to shut down. He couldn’t do anything to change the situation.

Clifftop Livestreamer

The cliff village has been undergoing big changes since 2016 when the government built steel stairs for the villagers. Along with safer physical access, the renovation also brought electricity, communications, and running water to the village. With stable power and 4G network coverage, villagers bought smartphones and began using unmanned aerial vehicles to transport medical supplies between clinics at the top and bottom of the mountain. Delivery time was cut from a full day to only about 10 minutes, and the steel stairs and the internet enabled the isolated villagers to see the broader world.

At 45, Mose Uha is a member of the last generation of “cliffmen.” He recalled construction of the steel stairs being unexpectedly hard. The builders were not local and had to rely on villagers to carry materials up the mountains. The 2,556 steel steps were composed of 1,500 steel pipes weighing over 40 tons as well as 6,000 fixation and fastening parts. Every piece was moved into place by human effort alone.

Mose Labo is known as a next-gen “cliffman” because he is so good at scaling ladders. He glides up like a leopard and deftly allows gravity to pull him down. And his tightrope walking on the railing of the stairs is breathtaking.

“I once shared a short video of my tightrope walking on the internet and got millions of ‘likes.’ But it was extremely dangerous, so I recommended that no one try it at home.” Mose Labo began climbing at age four, and 20 years later, he was among the most agile and flexible of “cliffmen.” Thanks to the steel stairs, Mose Labo can reach his village from the foot of the mountain in as few as 18 minutes, a trip that takes others up to two hours. For him, climbing ladders is like riding a bike.

Mose Labo speaks standard Chinese well because he used to work in Guangdong, which helped him become one of the first in his village to livestream. He records a variety of activities from daily life: climbing, tending livestock on cliffs, and enjoying the stunning landscapes. The “cliffman” went viral on social media platforms, and eventually Mose Labo was able to earn more than 100 yuan (US$15) by livestreaming for only half an hour. He recently started participating in livestream sales. Mose Labo noted that produce from the cliff village such as honey, walnuts, peppers, oranges, and olives are more truly organic than any others.

In early 2018, a tourism company was lured to Zhaojue County to develop the tourism resources around the cliff village such as the unique landscapes. Mose Labo became a tour guide due to his excellent climbing and internet popularity, and a sightseeing platform was even named after him. Soon, the cliff village became a popular tourism spot with a steady stream of visitors. The villagers began opening stores, and items such as refrigerators and bottled water started rising up the steel stairs.

Inspired by Mose Labo, many other young villagers began livestreaming and selling things online. Mose Su, a friend of Mose Labo, earns money by livestreaming and selling honey on the internet. Each week, he sells as many as 50 kilograms of honey by livestreaming collection, packing, and delivery of packages to the post office. He also works as a tour guide from time to time. This array of work can earn him 4,000-5,000 yuan (US$605-756) a month. Other villagers have escaped poverty by selling honey, peppers, and oranges.

Letting Go of the Cliff

The greatest change of Mose Labo’s life arrived last May. From May 12 to 14, the 344 people in 84 households of the cliff village, all registered as living under the poverty line, moved to new homes 65 kilometers away. The new buildings were placed at the edge of Zhaojue County, a key area in Sichuan Province for poverty-related relocation. Followed by his parents, his pregnant wife, and two kids, Mose Labo carried the chicken coop on his back and climbed down the cliff. Wearing the traditional clothing of the Yi ethnic group, the family boarded a waiting bus bound for their new home. The new 100-square-meter home is much brighter and larger, with three bedrooms, a living room, a kitchen, and a bathroom.

After moving, Mose Labo began frequently shuttling between the cliff village and his new home. Scaling four flights of stairs to reach his new fourth-floor apartment is nothing for a “Clifftop Man.” He bought a new electric bike to aid his trips between the county seat and his old house on the mountain, and it now takes him only eight minutes to reach the market in town. “I have to go back up the cliff to harvest the buckwheat, and I need to buy things in town to furnish the new house,” he said. “I am busy, but happy.” Labo expects his third child’s arrival to create a climax for the family’s joy of moving to a new home and starting a new life.

“The cliff village will not disappear, and the steel stairs will not waste away,” said Azi Anu, secretary of the town’s Party Committee. “It will become a signature tourism attraction in Zhaojue County. The villagers need to move down to enjoy better educational and medical resources. The land will still be theirs, and younger villagers can launch businesses and tourism services. The situation is creating many more job options.”

“The area trapped by Longtou Mountain, Shizi Mountain and the Grand Canyon could become a national forest park,” said Pacha Uge, head of the town and member of the village’s Party committee. “The grand and beautiful landscape here deserves it.” The current vision for developing the village includes construction of 45 guesthouses to accommodate tourists and mapping hiking routes to karst caves and hot springs in the canyons. This place has so much tourism potential. They are even planning to introduce cable cars to enable traveling through the clouds.

“Come back to our village next year so you can take the cable cars to the clifftop,” Mose Labo said to the reporters. “From the top of the mountain, you will enjoy a sea of clouds in the daylight and the ability to count the stars at night. You can watch the sun rise to embrace each new day.”

Villagers pose for a family photo on May 13, 2020. That day, a total of 31 poor households from the “cliff village” moved down to a community in the county seat. (JIANG LONG/VISUAL.PEOPLE.CN)

Young residents of the “cliff village” discuss online shopping on November 16, 2019. (SHEN HAI/VISUAL.PEOPLE.CN)

The steel stairway to the “cliff village” in Zhaojue County, Liangshan Yi Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan Province. (HE HAIYANG/VISUAL.PEOPLE.CN)

FROM NURSE TO PARTY SECRETARY

A life’s mission to help the poor

By Wang Zhe

Barely 30, Wang Xin from Liangshan Yi Autonomous Prefecture in southwest China’s Sichuan Province has already been honored for his efforts as a governmental official to improve local living standards.

Thanks to government-subsidized student loans and help from generous people, Wang was able to attend Chengdu Medical College and chose to study nursing to repay all the kindness from others. After he graduated in 2014, Wang secured a stable job at the First Affiliated Hospital of Chengdu Medical College. He married and settled in the provincial capital but started longing to do something for his hometown in the province’s remote area. When a recruitment notice of poverty alleviation officials was issued in November 2017, Wang applied immediately. A month later, he arrived in Deyu Village of Puge County, Liangshan, and began his term as its first Party secretary.

Selling Produce Online

“Puge” means “meadow beneath a mountain pass” in the Yi language. One of the poorest counties in China, the isolated region is largely inhabited by the Yi people who traditionally subsisted by alpine farming.

Wang quickly learned he would have to start from scratch to help Deyu’s 296 impoverished villagers in 67 households shake off poverty, because neither sufficient funds nor relevant guidance were available for rural industrial development.

“The mountainous village lacked large flat expanses of land for farming, and the villagers couldn’t afford the startup costs of animal husbandry,” Wang explained. After extensive investigations, he decided to try launching an online shop to sell local produce such as mushrooms, walnuts, and buckwheat. After registering on popular e-commerce platforms and securing effective marketing channels and personnel training, Wang managed to assemble an operation team consisting of needy villagers.

Getting the ball rolling was not so easy. “At first almost half of our orders were returned,” Wang recalled. “We had problems with the packing, packaging, and delivery information. Some orders were shipped to the wrong person or place. Some customers complained that they received less than what they ordered.”

To improve operations, Wang introduced a quality control process featuring “three checks and seven rights” and “independent double checks.” “I asked the villagers to check every customer’s name, phone number, and address, as well as quantities of items on the invoice when packing,” he said. “A second check is required at the post office before the goods are sent out.” As the operation team gradually became familiar with the workflow, the village’s online trading business started improving markedly.

The impoverished farmers have benefited substantially from selling produce online. Jimu Aniu, once a member of a poverty-stricken household, is now head of marketing and operations, earning a monthly salary of more than 5,000 yuan (US$760).

Creative Embroidery Products

To develop industries with local characteristics, Wang Xin looked hard at Yi embroidery. “The challenge was adapting the intangible cultural heritage to market demand by injecting modern aesthetic ideas,” he said.

At first, villagers of Deyu didn’t believe Wang’s idea of developing creative Yi embroidery products would work. Wang took his poverty alleviation team to every house to beg them to join the program. He finally got a handful of skeptical villagers to try.

Wang invited Qian Huamin, associate professor of painting at the College of Fine Arts of Sichuan Normal University, to conduct an investigation tour of Deyu and participate in the design of creative Yi embroidery works. Teachers with 20 years of experience in needlework were also invited to the village to train local Yi women.

Thanks to innovative design and professional training, Wang’s idea eventually produced a variety of beautifully embroidered products with unique patterns such as coasters, back cushions, refrigerator magnets, and women’s handbags.

“We integrated the patterns of Yi embroidery with everyday objects like purses, and they sold very well on e-commerce platforms,” Wang said. “These small jobs mean a lot to the Yi women. Their lives used to be dominated by farmwork and housework, and now they are able to earn money without leaving home. Most importantly, their family status has improved.”

Continuing efforts were made to develop a wider range of creative products. Inspired by experience from Derong County in Sichuan’s Ganzi Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Wang Xin launched plant specimen paintings. The new product capitalized on the village’s rich vegetation resources while incorporating cultural elements of the Yi people. So far, a total of 20 categories of creative products have been developed ranging from plant specimen artwork to desk calendars and purses. “For barely 100 yuan [US$15], our Yi-style handbags are particularly popular with younger urban women,” beamed Wang.

Wang also used a market-oriented approach to ensure healthy, sustained growth of Deyu’s cultural and creative industries. He led the village to establish the Niuniumo Rural Tourism Cooperative, registered a logo featuring a cartoon of a Yi girl in traditional costume, and secured the rights to use the collective trademark of “Sichuan Poverty Alleviation.” The cooperative organized promotional campaigns in major cities such as Beijing, Chengdu, and Guangzhou, and formed partnerships with China E-commerce Big Data Trading Center, Chengdu Xianglyu Cultural Communication Co., Ltd., and Luzhou Laojiao Group.

Thanks to Wang’s efforts and support from multiple parties, the Deyu Poverty Alleviation Online Shopping Mall went live on April 1 of this year. Operated by Niuniumo Cooperative, the platform offers local specialties and cultural products. Revenues are split between 30 percent for collective use, 30 percent for dividend payments to impoverished households, and the rest for business expansion.

Yi-style Guesthouse Complex

Famous for its rare natural hot spring waterfalls, Luoji Mountain was one of the first 4A-level tourist areas in Liangshan, and it is now working to upgrade to 5A. During the peak season from March to November, visitors flock to the picturesque scenic area but most stay in Xichang, the government seat of Liangshan. Wang Xin decided that the villages at the foot of Luoji Mountain would make highly attractive hotels for tourists, so he decided to convert traditional Deyu dwellings into a Yi-style guesthouse complex integrating accommodations and a workshop for cultural and creative products.

Named after the traditional dance performed during the Yi Torch Festival, the Duoluohe Guesthouse was soon completed. Themed around the fiery event, the rooms are furnished with torch-shaped lamps, and the doors are decorated with folktales of the Yi people.

The guesthouse complex is Deyu’s second industrial development project with collective ownership after the Niuniumo Cooperative. From lobby and room management to reception and cleaning, local villagers play an important part in day-to-day operations and management.

“Over the years, the villagers had to rely on help from others,” Wang sighed. “The two industrial development projects are empowering them to earn better lives. We plan to incorporate more family hotels into the Duoluohe brand in the future and help more villagers increase their income.”

A Daunting Task

“Serving as the first Party secretary is literally a 24/7 job,” laughed Wang Xin about his busy schedule every day. He goes to the Duoluohe Guesthouse and the Niuniumo Cooperative in the morning, visits villagers in the afternoon, and deals with paperwork until late at night.

Wang began his term in Deyu just about a year after marrying a girl named Zhang Yue. He has only been able to make the 8-hour trip home about every two months for a visit of only a couple days. “I owe my wife too much, and I plan to make up for my absence any way I can,” said Wang.

Because Wang was too busy to communicate much with his wife, they fought frequently until Zhang Yue visited Deyu in May 2019. There, she witnessed how consumed by work her husband was and realized how difficult a process it was to lift people out of poverty. She posted videos of Wang at work on the internet to help more people understand the role of first Party secretaries.

“Education enabled me to march down from the mountains,” Wang told his wife. “So my prime motive for serving as a poverty alleviation official is to help more children like me broaden their horizons and see the bigger world.”

Thanks to Wang’s efforts, a youth camp, jointly sponsored by the First Affiliated Hospital of Chengdu Medical College and the local government, has organized trips to cities and universities over the past two years to help children from poor families in Deyu understand the world beyond the mountains.

At the end of 2019, Deyu became the first dividend-paying village in the region, and the villagers succeeded in shaking off poverty with a per capita annual income of over 5,900 yuan (US$900). “Over the past few years, I have been constantly brainstorming how to transform the rich natural and cultural resources in remote areas into real benefits for local residents,” Wang said. “That’s what being the first Party secretary is all about.”

Logo of the Niuniumo Rural Tourism Cooperative. (WANG ZHE)

Dressed in traditional Yi costume, Wang Xin shows cultural and creative products developed by the Niuniumo Rural Tourism Cooperative. (WANG ZHE)

Aerial view of the countryside of Liangshan. (WANG XI)

The Duoluohe Guesthouse. (WANG ZHE)

A SPORTING CHANCE

Soccer is scoring opportunities for young women in mountainous areas

By Zhang Lijuan, Chen Ke

Qiongzhong Li and Miao Autonomous County, located in the central mountainous area of Hainan Island, was once an extremely poverty-stricken area. It was not until April 2019 that Qiongzhong was removed from the list of state-level poverty-stricken counties. According to traditional customs of the Li ethnic group, girls often marry at the age of 16 and then take care of children and husband for the rest of their lives. They may find the opportunity to cut rubber.

However, the lives of numerous women in this area have been changed since the Qiongzhong Women’s Football Team (QWFT) was established in February 2006.

Fighting Spirit

“Please come to Qiongzhong, Xiao Shan,” said his mentor Gu Zhongsheng over the phone. “Let’s build a women’s soccer team. For so many years, Chinese teams have always performed dismally in international soccer matches because too few people are willing to endure the necessary hardship. Come over here, and let’s do something with a dream.” Xiao received the call at the end of 2005, when he was working for a professional football club in Hunan Province at a monthly salary of 30,000 yuan (US$4,484). Xiao decided to go without much hesitation.

“I played soccer when I was young, but I never got a chance to play for the national team,” Xiao said. “If I could cultivate a couple of players for the national team, it would be a dream come true.”

Xiao Shan ventured to Qiongzhong alone. “As a national-level poverty-stricken county, Qiongzhong back then had only one street and one traffic light in the whole county and no taxis,” he recalled. “Good luck finding a bowl of noodles if you were hungry.”

Among some 300 standout female athletes from the mountainous area, Xiao Shan selected a total of 24 girls at an average age of 13 for the first team players at QWFT. But difficulties soon emerged.

“What is football?” Many girls from remote mountainous areas had limited exposure to football. Their motivation to join the team was not any affection for football, but promises of free meals and accommodations. They could also earn bonuses for winning matches. Their aim was to lessen the burden on their family. Even the offer of free soccer shoes was a big draw.

During that period, Xiao Shan played multiple roles: the team coach, driver, cook, doctor, and leader. One day, he went to Haikou, capital of Hainan Province, to buy groceries for the girls. On a street corner, Xiao met an old female friend from college, Wu Xiaoli.

“I have known Xiao Shan since I was a college student in Suzhou [an eastern Chinese city],” Wu reported. “Xiao was on a football team in Suzhou. But I haven’t seen him since 1994 when I was still in college. We lost touch after graduation. I didn’t expect to see him after more than a decade.”

Xiao and Wu started communicating frequently. One day, Xiao invited Wu to visit his football team. When Wu arrived, the girls from the team greeted her as the “coach’s wife.” Wu was thoroughly touched by the girls’ innocence.

Over the following months, Wu Xiaoli made several trips to Qiongzhong to watch the girls’ training and cook for them. “I was frequently touched by the girls’ fighting spirit,” Wu recalled. “Although I didn’t know anything about football at that time, I was deeply moved when I saw Xiao Shan lead the team in training and compete in matches, as well as buy groceries, cook, or just talk about ideals. To support his work, I decided to give up my stable job in Haikou and come to Qiongzhong to assist Xiao. I am now responsible for the team’s logistics.”

Head of Internal Affairs

The addition of Wu Xiaoli injected care, motivation, and enthusiasm into the entire team.

Wu was around for much of the hardship the team endured in its early years. During that period, the team had a monthly budget of only about 70,000 yuan (US$10,484), and daily meal allowance of just 5 yuan (US$0.75) per player, compared to 45 yuan (US$6.7) for a provincial-level athlete.

So, Xiao Shan’s team budgeted 1 yuan (US$0.15) each for breakfast, 2 yuan (US$0.3) for lunch and 2 yuan (US$0.3) for dinner. The girls were growing up, and they trained and played football hard, so they needed nutritious food to maintain strength and energy. But such insufficient funds made this hard.

Wu Xiaoli figured out a way to save money while securing nutritious food for the girls. In addition to farming a vegetable plot near the soccer field, Wu always haggled prices with vendors every time she went to the market for meat and fish. Almost all vendors in the market came to know her as “Aunt Wu” from the women’s football team.

“I told the vendors about the girls’ lives and how they trained so hard, to explain why I needed beef to enhance strength, promote physical recovery, and supplement calcium,” she said. “Gradually, they started softening towards the fund shortage situation and gave me beef at 30 to 75 percent off. They even gave me the bones for free.”

During that period, the team didn’t have access to a local doctor. It was common for girls to catch cold and fever and suffer training injuries. In those days, Wu Xiaoli would ride a motorcycle up the hill to collect herbs. Some were used to make herbal tea, and others were mashed to be applied to wounds.

“We all call Wu Xiaoli ‘Mum’ because whenever someone is sick, she is always by the girl’s side,” said one player. “She drove us to see the doctor and boiled medicine for us.” Players remember Wu’s care and love vividly.

Sneakers were precious to players. But at first, girls only received a single pair of cloth shoes for training. The cloth shoes quickly wore out during training. “Even after the shoes were worn out, we were reluctant to throw them away,” said Wu Xiaoli. “The team couldn’t afford to buy new shoes. I would spend a bunch of time each night mending the shoes, but they would quickly get worn out again. If a shoe was beyond repair, I would match one team member’s left shoe with another’s right, so you would often see mismatched pairs. It is no exaggeration to say QWFT developed thanks to help from all sectors of society.”

Winning is One Thing

After long-term persistence of people like Xiao Shan and Wu Xiaoli, the QWFT expanded from 24 players to nearly 300 now. The team widened from one age group to multiple and won championships in provincial and national football competitions, and even the 2015 Gothia Cup (U-12 competition), an international youth soccer tournament.

Over the past 15 years, the QWFT has cultivated 40 national level-1 athletes and numerous national level-2 athletes, and some 13 girls have been admitted to universities. In 2011, two players were selected for the National Youth Women’s Football training team.

Football has changed the fate of many Li girls from the mountains. “Winning is not the most important thing,” said Wu. “The top priority is given to enabling them to see the outside world. Several players from the QWFT passed the exams and went to college. Football changed their destiny. I hope football can help more girls find their way out of the mountains to explore the wonderful world. I think that is more important than winning.”

“Years ago, we were recruiting these unrefined young players,” Wu added. “We never expected them to compete in international matches on behalf of China. Football changed their lives and the destiny of their families completely.

“I hope football education helps these girls. Only a few QWFT players will ever become professional football players, and most will go on to other careers. What we do is to enable these children from poverty-stricken mountainous areas to change their lives through football. We hope the girls can earn lifelong wealth by learning independence, self-reliance, and self-respect through playing football.”

Different Goals

From July 10 to July 25, Wang Jingyi and Wang Huimin from the QWFT joined 30 players from other places to participate in an intensive training and recruitment program at the Kunming Haigeng Physical Training Base to prepare for 2021 Asian women’s football youth tournament qualifiers. Both Wang Jingyi and Wang Huimin were selected for the women’s national under-16 football training squad and were included in the Chinese women’s national under-16 football team in 2018. In 2019, the two participated in the Asian Football Confederation U-16 Women’s Championship 2019 as starters on the national team.

China Report ASEAN visited the QWFT to witness Wang Jingyi in training. Under the sun, Wang, the team captain, was soaked in sweat. “Are you tired?” China Report ASEAN asked. “Yes”, she replied. She grimaced slightly and added quietly: “Please don’t let the coach’s wife know.”

“However tired I get, fulfilling my dream is worth it,” she added on the way to the dormitory. “So I must persist.”

Wang Jingyi has a younger brother in the fifth grade at an elementary school in town. Before joining the QWFT, Wang had to walk three kilometers on mountain road to attend school in Hongmao town, as her brother now does.

It is hard for Wang Jingyi to imagine what her life would be like now if not for football. “Once I went back home and met a close friend from sixth grade,” she recalled. “I was shocked to see a crying child in her arms. She was still so young; I couldn’t believe she could take care of a child. However tired I feel, I have hope for a career and a future that she will never have.

“As I have matured and gained experience, I have become more grateful to Wu Xiaoli and started appreciating everything she does for us. I wouldn’t be who I am today without Wu’s guidance.”

The QWFT Spirit

When China Report ASEAN found Gao Yuxuan, she was explaining basic fundamentals to young team members under the scorching sun. The original soil pitch from a decade ago has been replaced by a brand-new synthetic field. Gao has transformed from a naive young recruit to a coach of the QWFT.

Born into a poor rural family in Limushan town of Qiongzhong County, her ancestors were all farmers. “If Xiao Shan had not selected me to play football, I might have married early in accordance with Li tradition and lived an ordinary life,” Gao said. “Football changed my life. Attending college and becoming a coach were far beyond my parents’ expectations.”

After graduating with an education degree from Hainan Normal University’s College of Physical Education, Gao Yuxuan returned to the QWFT and became a coach of 48 young players. Gao said that her return was not only to repay coach Xiao Shan but also to help more children like her from the mountains change their lives through football.

“Now, I am training young players for the women’s football team, and we start selecting players from the second grade of elementary school,” Gao reported proudly. “Many parents are very supportive, and young players have better foundations than we used to find. Some young players can bounce a ball on their head 9,000 times straight.”

Although the living and playing conditions have improved and players don’t worry so much about shoes any more, the original spirit of the QWFT has persisted.

“Although the QWFT has achieved some good results at home and abroad, we have to stay humble and keep going,” Wu Xiaoli said. “The QWFT has experimented with becoming a football club, and I hope more people pay attention to us because football is the only way out for many girls from these mountainous areas.”

Group photo of some QWFT players, 2017. (ZHAO YINGQUAN)

QWFT players hold up the championship trophy of the 2017 Gothia Cup China in Shenyang, capital of Liaoning Province, on August 19, 2017. (YU HAIYANG)

Two players of the QWFT read in the dormitory after training on April 15, 2012. (SHAO QUANDA)

On June 29, 2015, QWFT players train under the scorching sun in Haikou, capital of Hainan Province, to prepare for an international match. (SHI YAN)

Xiao Shan, coach of the QWFT, leads players in training in Haikou, capital of Hainan Province, on July 3, 2015. (SHI YAN)

L0023.T001.JPG

70,000 yuan
a monthly budget
During that period, the team had a monthly budget of only about 70,000 yuan (US$10,484), and daily meal allowance of just 5 yuan (US$0.75) per player, compared to 45 yuan (US$6.7) for a provincial-level athlete.

SPECIAL FOR A REASON

Luocheng Mulao Autonomous County alleviates poverty with local specialties

By Tan Xingyu

Luocheng Mulao Autonomous County at the southern foot of the Jiuwan Mountains in northern Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region is dominated by lush mountains and ridges. The green hills and clear waters have nurtured profound cultural heritage, and the surviving ancient Mulao culture and customs are unique. Many ethnic groups including Mulao, Zhuang, Han, Miao, Yao and Dong continue to thrive there.

However, Luocheng is a key county for China’s poverty alleviation because its many mountains, meager arable land, and inconvenient transportation have hindered its development. In 2015, the county had 83,900 registered impoverished people living in 82 villages, and the poverty headcount ratio was 28.47 percent.

At the end of 2019, 19 poor villages remained with a combined poverty-stricken population of 6,509 in 2,315 households.

China has learned well that lucid waters and lush mountains are invaluable assets, but lifting people from all ethnic groups out of poverty is a daunting challenge.

Fuzzy-vine Feelings

“How do we overcome poverty?” said a villager. “Grapes, of course!”

In a vineyard in the hills of Lile Village in Siba Town of Luocheng, villager Wei Fengmao was busy picking grapes. Wei had so many to pick that he hired friends from the village to help.

“I expect my income from planting grapes to surpass 200,000 yuan [US$30,195.1] this year,” said Wei with a smile.

Wei Fengmao returned to his hometown in 2002 to take care of his family. But the barren land made it difficult to provide support for the whole family, so Wei started searching for more lucrative crops to plant. He became enamored with local wild Vitis quinquangularis Rehd (“fuzzy-vine”) grapes because “they can grow anywhere, even in crevices between rocks,” according to Wei.

The autonomous county has a long history of growing Vitis quinquangularis Rehd. It is known as the “Home of China’s Vitis Quinquangularis Rehd” and “The Origin of China’s Vitis Quinquangularis Rehd Wine.” The “Luocheng Vitis quinquangularis Rehd” has won recognition as a National Geographical Indication Product.

Wild Vitis quinquangularis Rehd has a well-developed root system, fast-growing vines, and resistance to humidity, heat, drought and barrenness. It can produce 500 to 750 kilograms of fresh fruit per mu (0.07 hectare). Its growth helps control soil erosion while generating considerable economic benefits, and it is especially suitable for mountainous areas.

Wei Fengmao reclaimed 170 mu (11.3 hectares) of barren hills to plant Vitis quinquangularis Rehd. However, he was still registered as a poor farmer in 2015 due to the long growth cycle of the wild grape, low fruit-bearing rate, poor harvests, and debts incurred by building the vineyard.

The local government designated Wei as a key target to help, provided him a subsidized loan and fertilizer, and dispatched technicians to offer professional consultation. Wei replaced his poorest-performing vines with high-quality seedlings, and the yield gradually improved. In 2016, he secured a bumper harvest of grapes and income of 160,000 yuan (US$24,156), and finally came out of poverty.

Across the county, more than 3,800 poverty-stricken households like Wei Fengmao started planting Vitis quinquangularis Rehd. Since 2012, more than 1,200 poor households have been lifted out of poverty via fuzzy-vine grapes. Alongside improving distribution of fresh fruit, Luocheng has also actively recruited enterprises to conduct deep processing of Vitis quinquangularis Rehd. Now, companies are locally producing a wide range of derivative products including wine, juice, face masks, laundry detergent, and body wash.

Leadership Matters

At the Dafengling Chinese Herbal Medicine Demonstration Base in Minzu Village, Xiaochang’an Town, 40 kilometers from Lile Village, villager Xie Nianyuan credited his climb from poverty to the leadership of Qin Fengqiong, head of the village committee.

Xie Nianyuan used to live in a more remote mountainous area. He moved to Minzu Village in 1996 and started planting fruit trees, but barely made ends meet. Other relocated villagers endured similarly humble living conditions. About a third of villagers were registered as poverty-stricken households.

As Xie continued struggling with poverty, some in the village were finding a way out. In 2011, Qin Fengqiong, born in the 1980s, started leading planting of the medicinal herb fructus evodiae. Fructus evodiae has a pungent taste and has been used for pain relief and repelling roundworms for at least 2,000 years. It is a commonly used Chinese medicinal herb with high economic value. The soil of Minzu Village has a high concentration of sand and stone, which is suitable for planting fructus evodiae.

Led by Qin, Xie Nianyuan joined other villagers in planting fructus evodiae. In 2014, Minzu Village established the Feifeng Planting and Breeding Specialized Farmers’ Cooperative and organized the Dafengling Chinese Herbal Medicine Demonstration Base. By adopting a business model of “cooperative + base + farming households,” the cooperative brought together formerly scattered fructus evodiae planters for unified management, operation, and marketing. Now, the products are mainly sold to major Chinese herbal medicine wholesale markets. Currently, the cooperative has 146 household members, including 37 registered poor households of 163 people.

From 2014 to 2019, the cooperative lifted 129 people in 30 poor households out of poverty in Minzu Village. All poverty-stricken households in the village are expected to emerge from poverty by the end of 2020.

Today, every Minzu Village family lives in a multiple-story house, and 80 percent of the villagers own a car. Xie Nianyuan said his living standards improved markedly under Qin Fengqiong’s lead.

Education First

At Shenzhen Experimental Primary School (Luocheng), sixth-grader Luo Yushan reported a desire to become a translator when she grows up. She was not intimidated by recent advances in artificial intelligence translation technology.

Luo was born in a small, remote mountain village in Long’an Town, Luocheng. Her family’s old tile-roofed house often leaked, and they endured difficult living conditions. In 2017, a relocation program for poverty alleviation brought them to a new house with three bedrooms and a living room in “Mulao Home” community in the county seat. Luo now walks only a few minutes to reach school.

Luo Yushan’s parents used to work in Guangdong Province, and they took her along and enrolled her in school there. Emphasis on education is a tradition of the Mulao people. Because of concerns about access to education, her parents were hesitant about returning to Luocheng. After a field visit to the Shenzhen Experimental Primary School (Luocheng), her parents were finally convinced to return home because the school conditions looked as solid as in Guangdong.

This September, Luo Yushan returned home from Guangdong and transferred to the experimental school.

“Our school is aimed at children of almost 20,000 nearby residents including 2,560 households relocated to the ‘Mulao Home’,” said Cai Yilin, principal of the school. Cai noted that the school has been in operation since September 2018. The fall semester of 2020 served 1,422 students with 28 classes staffed by a faculty of 66 teachers. Among all students, 917, or 64.5 percent, come from poverty-stricken families, and 760 come from relocated households, accounting for 53.4 percent.

The school is a project of China’s East-West Pairing-Off Cooperation for Poverty Reduction. Shenzhen, a developed metropolis in Guangdong, provided aid funds of 25.9 million yuan (US$3.9 million) to construct the teaching buildings, sports fields, fences, and multimedia classrooms and distance education equipment to allow local students remote access to high-quality courses in Shenzhen.

A farmer picks Vitis quinquaanqqularis Rehd in a vineyard in Luocheng Mulao Autonomous County on September 17, 2020. Vitis quinquaanqqularis Rehd planting has allowed Luocheng farmers to escape poverty and seize prosperity. (ZHAI LIQIANG)

Children read together at school in Luocheng Mulao Autonomous County on November 6, 2019. (LU BO’AN)

Aerial view of Jian’ai Township in Luocheng Mulao Autonomous County. (PENG HUAN)

ALL IN THE SOIL

Meizhou in south China develops characteristic industries to shake off poverty

By Yuan Yanan

On September 21, 2020, a resident of Dahuang Village in Meizhou City, Guangdong Province, inspects ripening Golden Pomelos. (REN HAIXIA)

On September 22, many Chinese and foreign tourists gathered at Yushui Village in Meizhou City, Guangdong Province, to celebrate the Chinese Farmers' Harvest Festival. Local villagers erected a massive stage in the center of the village and presented the Chinese lion dance and many other traditional performances for the guests.

To celebrate the festival, Xiong Xiaoying, who lives 40 kilometers from the Yushui Village, decided to arrive early with her family. “My son even took a day off to come with us,” she said. “During the Chinese Farmers’ Harvest Festival, we get to see the new looks of the countryside and new life of farmers.”

Near the entrance to the performance area, many local products such as pomelos, tea, flowers, and rice were on display. Local people have harnessed the online-to-offline model to sell produce to farther places.

Situated in the mountainous areas of southeastern Guangdong, Meizhou used to be a key target of poverty reduction strategies. By developing and promoting industries with local characteristics, the area gradually emerged from poverty. As of June 2020, all 272 poor villages in Meizhou had been lifted out of poverty.

Golden Pomelo Horizons

In Dahuang Village of Songkou Town, Meizhou, people were busy harvesting pomelos in a local industrial park. With the help of big machines, the villagers sorted heaps of Golden Pomelos and then loaded them on trucks to be sold all over the country.

“By growing Golden Pomelos, we got rid of poverty and became a rich village,” said Liao Jianming, secretary of the Party Committee of Dahuang Village. “The planting area of pomelos in our village covers more than 300 hectares. We have been selling 100 million kilograms of pomelos each year since 2015, with an annual output value of about 400 million yuan [US$60 million]. The industry has created 1,500 jobs, and in 2019, per capita income in our village surpassed 28,000 yuan [US$4,214]. The Golden Pomelo led to better lives.”

Locals began planting the Golden Pomelo in Dahuang Village as early as the 1980s. However, the sweet fruits never reached the broader market because of poor communication and transportation. Eventually, villagers decided to try the richer and more developed Pearl River Delta, where the Golden Pomelo gained great popularity for its sweet and juicy pulp.

In 2013, by pooling the strength of the pomelo growers in Dahuang Village, the village committee established the Golden Pomelo Cooperative to produce and sell pomelos by integrating 20-plus cooperatives. More than 200 households in the village became shareholders of the cooperative, which helped raise over 10 million yuan (US$1.5 million). Dahuang Village became the first pomelo village to distribute dividends to villagers.

The intensive management model drove the village’s pomelo industry. “Now we attach greater importance to branding, and push growers to focus on improving the quality of products,” said Liao. “In 2015, we established a joint-stock company with the village collective holding an 8 percent share. Three years later, we built the Meixian Golden Pomelo Industrial Park, which integrated pomelo purchasing, processing, and reselling.” According to him, the industrial park not only helps sell pomelos produced by Dahuang Village, but also attracts people living in the four surrounding towns to grow the fruit. All their pomelos are transported to the industrial park for sorting, cleaning, and processing before shipment to the rest of the country.

Meizhou is home to the biggest production area for pomelos in Guangdong Province and the second largest in China. There is also an unwritten “pricing rule” in Meizhou. Locals say “pomelos in Meizhou are priced by Meixian District while pomelos in Meixian are priced by Songkou Town, and pomelos in Songkou are priced by Dahuang Village.” Liao Jianming explained that Dahuang Village wields absolute pricing power because the pomelos produced here accounts for half of the town’s total.

Liao Zhiguang is a 47-year-old pomelo grower in Dahuang Village. He was formerly an migrant worker in Shenzhen, living away from home. Last year, he decided to return and reunite with his loved ones. The developing pomelo industry presented an opportunity for a better life.

“Our pomelos are high quality and sell well,” said Liao. “Just selling pomelos, I earned about 80,000 yuan [US$ 12,000] last year. The income is not as much as I earned before, but now I can live at home and spend time with my family.”

Liao Zhijun is the general manager of Zhongxin Fruit Cooperative in the industrial park. He credited large machines with speeding up the sorting process immensely. Considering that the storehouse is over 8,000 square meters, mechanized sorting improved operational efficiency greatly. “In the past, handling 50,000 kilograms of pomelos a day would have been very challenging for us,” he said. “But now with the machines, we can easily handle 250,000 kilograms a day.”

A total of 102 households have joined the cooperative managed by Liao Zhijun. He said that the cooperative helps reduce poverty by following directions from the local government. “We provide households with agricultural resources and technical instructions. We pack and purchase their pomelos and help them sell the fruit. We also prioritize poor households when hiring.”

Liao Jianming has bigger plans for the future development of Dahuang Village. Now that the primary and secondary industries of the village have been developing fast, the tertiary industry must catch up. “Rural tourism is an integral strategy of rural vitalization, exactly what we are striving to develop,” said Liao. “With a long history of over six centuries, Dahuang Village boasts 98 ancient structures and dozens of them are well-preserved. All these historical and cultural resources are of great value, and I am confident that the village will be developing quickly over the next few years.”

Tea Planting and Tourism

“This is called Ziya, the most precious tea in this plantation,” said Su Zhixiong, manager of the Hanshan Ecological Tea Plantation. He pointed at a cluster of short tea trees. “It is the most prominent tea, and each kilogram can sell over 26,000 yuan [US$ 3,900]. The tea can only be harvested 15 days before and after the Qingming Festival, and its yield is quite low because 10 kilograms of fresh tea leaves can only produce one kilogram of dried tea.” Alongside Ziya, the plantation also grows other tea varieties including Jinxuan, Shuixian, white tea, and Queshe.

Hanshan Ecological Tea Plantation, covering over 130 hectares of land, is tucked in the Hanshan Mountains. The place is named after Han Yu (768-824), a prominent poet of the Tang Dynasty, who chose to live in the place because of its beautiful landscape. The Hanshan Mountains have abundant water resources, and the soil selenium content is as high as 0.93mg/kg (China’s national standard for rich-in-selenium is 0.4mg/kg), which provides an ideal environment for the growth of tea. The locals explored a way to amass wealth by developing the tea industry according to local conditions.

“Tea planting brought us net profits of 50 million yuan [US$ 7.6 million] a year,” said Su Zhixiong, noting that the Hanshan Ecological Tourism Resort also provides jobs for local households. “The villagers here can work at the plantation and earn 3,000 yuan [US$ 454] a month. We also buy dove droppings from local dove breeders to use as fertilizers for the tea trees. Every year we purchase about 50,000 tons of dove manure, which not only improves the local soil but also provides financial support to farmers. Doves can also be sold for money.”

With over a hundred tea companies, Fengshun County now has 7,200 hectares of high-quality tea trees, an eighth of the total coverage of tea trees in Guangdong Province. As of the end of 2019, the total value of tea output of local tea plantations exceeded 900 million yuan (US$137 million), and per capita income of farmers was 18,000 yuan (US$2,737), nearly 3,000 yuan (US$456) more than the average income of farmers in Fengshun County.

Based on tea planting, local people built the Hanshan Ecological Tourism Resort to explore a development model integrating tea industry and tourism. The beautiful landscape in the mountains and local history and culture are all excellent resources for the county to develop tourism. During the tea harvest season, tourists can experience tea picking and the production process. In the first half of this year, the Hanshan Historical and Cultural Ecological District was rated a national 3A-level tourist attraction. It is located in the center of eastern Guangdong, so more than 60 percent of tourists visiting the place are from neighboring cities such as Chaozhou and Shantou. Hanshan has become a popular tourist attraction for surrounding areas.

Growing the Orchid Industry

In the Orchid Base in Chengbei Town of Meizhou City, people were busy separating orchids and planting them in flowerpots. Boasting nearly 70 hectares of orchid planting area, Meizhou is an important production base for the orchid industry in Guangdong Province. Orchids are playing an important role in increasing farmers’ income and developing the rural economy.

“The most fascinating thing about orchids is the varieties,” said Cai Lianghui, an orchid enthusiast. He became obsessed with the plant back in the 1990s, when he began spending most of his leisure time observing orchids at home and looking for rare species in mountains.

“Some places in Meizhou have orchids all over the mountains,” he claimed. “During the blooming season, we go to these places to find and select orchid species.” Hundreds of orchid species already grow in Cai’s garden, and annual sales of orchids exceed 2 million yuan (US$300,000). “If I sold some very precious orchid species, yearly sales could reach 10 million yuan [US$1.5 million].”

Liang Qingzhong made a fortune the very first time he sold his homegrown orchids 20 years ago. “The flowers earned me a lot of money just within the 10 days before and after the Spring Festival.” Liang Qingzhong seized the opportunity and attempted scale planting. He went to Shunde City to find distributors to access the wider orchid market and expanded his orchid planting area from five hectares to more than 20 hectares.

In 2013, Liang Qingzhong was elected president of the Meizhou Orchid Association. He then encouraged other orchid growers to join the association and exchange information and ideas on orchid planting. “Now, we have more than 110 family-based and industrialized orchid greenhouses and 76 commercial orchid gardens.” Liang noted that while most orchids from the association are sold to Shandong, Henan, and northeastern provinces, some are exported to countries such as Japan and South Korea. Cultivating high-quality orchids and increasing exports constitute a major driving force for the growth of the local orchid industry.

The orchid base adopted a model of “enterprise + base + farmers” to help farmers raise income. By leasing land, orchid farmers can earn more income than by farming, enabling them to work in a relatively comfortable environment in the orchid base. After learning the planting techniques at the base, farmers can plant their own flowers on the side for extra money.

“Orchids need a good environment to grow, where growers don’t have to worry about soil and water pollution, not to mention noise and air pollution,” said Liang Zhongqing. “The local serenity presents farmers a promising opportunity.”

A villager welcomes tourists visiting Yushui Village in Meizhou City. (ZUO LIN)

300 hectares
100 million kilograms
400 million yuan
1,500 jobs
28,000 yuan
“The planting area of pomelos in our village covers more than 300 hectares. We have been selling 100 million kilograms of pomelos each year since 2015, with an annual output value of about 400 million yuan [US$60 million]. The industry has created 1,500 jobs, and in 2019, per capita income in our village surpassed 28,000 yuan [US$4,214]. The Golden Pomelo led to better lives.”

Villagers in Dahuang Village, Meizhou, Guangdong Province, sort and pack pomelos. (ZUO LIN)

L0028.T002.JPG

900 million yuan
18,000 million yuan
3,000 yuan
With over a hundred tea companies, Fengshun County now has 7,200 hectares of high-quality tea trees, an eighth of the total coverage of tea trees in Guangdong Province. As of the end of 2019, the total value of tea output of local tea plantations exceeded 900 million yuan (US$137 million), and per capita income of farmers was 18,000 yuan (US$2,737), nearly 3,000 yuan (US$456) more than the average income of farmers in Fengshun County.

On September 22, 2020, residents of Yushui Village watch a dance show during the Chinese Farmers’ Harvest Festival. Straw sculptures of farmers depict the harvest. (YUAN YANAN)

CHINA’S WAR ON POVERTY

“China’s poverty alleviation achievements will be remembered for ages”

By He Jing, Zuo Lin

On July 31, 2019, Voices from the Frontline: China’s War on Poverty, a documentary about China’s poverty alleviation campaign, debuted on U.S. television. The production follows the inside story of China’s race to eradicate all poverty by the end of 2020 through five cases.

The host and writer of the documentary, Dr. Robert Lawrence Kuhn, a renowned China expert and recipient of the China Reform Friendship Medal, visited poor households in Guizhou, Gansu, Shanxi, Sichuan and Hainan provinces and the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. He interviewed government officials at the central, provincial, city, county, township, and village levels and recorded considerable first-hand information about poverty alleviation programs.

China Report ASEAN: Why is your documentary focused on poverty alleviation in China?

Kuhn: I have been visiting China for more than 30 years, working with my long-time partner Adam Zhu to tell China’s stories to the world in various forms. We have found that although China has many achievements and numerous stories to tell, none have adequately represented the real China or been as powerful in impact as China’s commitment to eradicate all extreme poverty and the systematic implementation to make it happen by the end of 2020.

In practical terms, China’s poverty alleviation program is the best story to offset biases and disrupt stereotypes about China. A good part of the reason is that foreigners have very limited knowledge of China’s poverty alleviation commitment and campaign or understanding of how it really works. If foreigners read anything about poverty alleviation in China, it is general and broad with big numbers such as “800 million people,” which is impressive, of course, but not emotionally moving. Truly understanding China’s poverty alleviation requires hearing the stories of individual families who have emerged from poverty—that’s multiple millions of stories.

Over the past 30 years, and more intensely over the past 15 years, I have traveled across China, visiting over 100 cities (and innumerable counties, townships, and villages) with Adam Zhu to research, investigate and interview for books, essays, television, and documentary productions. After all that, despite how much I thought I knew about China, I did not appreciate everything required for poverty alleviation until I started making personal visits to poor regions, especially remote mountainous villages. I found the opportunity to speak with poor villagers and hear their stories. I came to feel, vicariously, as if I had been part of their families and had made the poverty-alleviation journey with them.

I have also found that, surprisingly, many Chinese urbanites do not appreciate how poverty alleviation is being conducted in rural areas of their own country, particularly younger folks. In my conversations with these young people, including children of migrant workers born in major cities, I felt somewhat sad that so many had no idea of the historic transformations taking place in the villages and townships, where, not long ago, their parents lived and worked. This is why I became committed to telling China’s story of poverty alleviation to the world—including to China. This is the Chinese story I must tell.

At the same time, looking past the great good of poverty alleviation itself, deep insights can be gained into understanding how the governance structure and organizational capabilities of the Communist Party of China (CPC) enabled the poverty alleviation campaign to fulfill its mission. This is especially important at this time of heightened awareness of China’s expanding role in international affairs and increasing sensitivity to it.

When China’s 2020 poverty alleviation mission is completed, China will have achieved the poverty reduction goal of the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development 10 years early. No other country has lifted so many people out of poverty or done so in such a short period of time. When historians of the future write the chronicles of our times, a feature story will likely be China’s targeted poverty alleviation. This epic achievement will be remembered for ages.

China Report ASEAN: You collected a wealth of first-hand material through your investigations. What was the most impressive story for you?

Kuhn: I travelled to Huishui County, Guizhou Province, where relocation of entire villages was underway. From remote mountain hamlets, villagers were being moved to the Mingtian community 70 kilometers away. I learned that housing was free for villagers who agreed to relocate. A family of four received up to 80 square meters of living space, 20 per person. The government also covered all basic amenities including furniture, appliances, and electronics.

Some rural men who were farmers learned new non-farming skills, such as cooking. I got to know one former farmer who was studying to be a chef. Three generations of his family and several of his friends were appreciative of their new lives. But not everyone from the villages agreed to move to the new communities. After all, their lives have been centered on the farms for generations. Convincing the few lingering villagers to relocate was the local Party secretary’s job. It is policy that the government cannot force people to relocate.

I was perhaps most impressed with the system to mitigate fraud, which is called “third-party evaluation.” In such a massive country with such large flows of funds and so many officials’ careers on the line, risk of abuse and manipulation remains a problem even with big successes in industry, education, and relocation.

Between 2015 and 2019, almost 3 million Party officials were working on the frontlines of rural poverty alleviation across China. The third-party evaluators’ task was to critique both the successes and the challenges of the poverty alleviation process and assess how well officials were performing. Since the evaluators were from completely different regions, they could not personally know any of the officials whom they were evaluating, so they could not be swayed by personal relationships. To ensure that local officials could not prepare facades for inspection visits, the evaluation teams determined their schedule on-the-fly and showed up unannounced.

“I wasn’t expecting such positive results,” said one unsophisticated American after watching our film. “I guess there are so many negative reports about China that we assume they couldn’t care less about their lower class.”

China Report ASEAN: Why do you think China was able to make such great achievements in poverty alleviation? What challenges does China face?

Kuhn: Some may be surprised to learn that CPC General Secretary Xi Jinping considers poverty alleviation his most important task. For about seven years, I have been tracking Xi’s relentless pursuit to eradicate all absolute poverty in China by 2020.

In the early decades of reform when leaders looked at poverty alleviation from wider angles, they focused mostly on economic growth, which brought hundreds of millions of Chinese out of poverty, the greatest developmental success story in human history. But around the turn of the century, especially after the 18th CPC National Congress in late 2012, leaders began realizing that about 100 million Chinese remained intractably poor.

On November 3, 2013, CPC General Secretary Xi Jinping first proposed the concept of “targeted” poverty alleviation. He said targeted measures should be made based on practical situations and empty slogans should be avoided.

I was startled to discover that they have a file on every poor family in China, each with a “targeted” plan to lift the subject above the line of absolute poverty. Poor families have customized plans, each checked monthly, recorded on paper, and digitized for central compilation and analysis. That’s millions of households!

The success of China’s targeted poverty alleviation campaign, which has been bringing 10 to 14 million people per year out of poverty since 2013, depends on strict, quantitative, and transparent procedures. Moreover, China’s achievements in poverty alleviation can be attributed to three powerful parallel factors: CPC leadership, CPC General Secretary Xi’s commitment, and CPC mobilization.

First, the operational leadership of the CPC is not just giving directives and pronouncements but actually implementing programs and projects through the CPC organizational structure: central government and five levels of local government (provincial, municipal, county, township and village). Second, the commitment of CPC General Secretary Xi, who has set an example for leaders and officials by voicing his personal opinions repeatedly and allocating his personal time extensively. He has stressed poverty alleviation and encouraged Party cadres to visit impoverished areas regularly and interact with local people directly. Third, the CPC can coordinate personnel and materials throughout the country. Whether fighting the COVID-19 epidemic or poverty, this “country-wide” mechanism demonstrates, in concrete terms, the advantages of the Chinese system. The country can concentrate all its resources and unite all its peoples to achieve overarching national objectives.

China’s targeted poverty alleviation campaign, for all its historic success, has of course faced some challenges. Most notably, the continuing impact of the coronavirus epidemic, with vast social disruptions and a huge economic slowdown, does not look to be ending any time soon. The general economic decline throughout the world brought by the sudden pandemic has resulted in declining economies buying less from China’s export-oriented companies. Third, rocky relations with the U.S. adds another level of economic uncertainty and pressure.

China Report ASEAN: What do you think other developing countries can learn from China’s poverty reduction experience?

Kuhn: Among developing countries, only China has achieved rapid development and large-scale poverty reduction in which the poor have shared the fruits of reform and opening up over such a long time. Many of the most immovably poor have finally climbed out of poverty over the last seven years or so. For good reason, China’s poverty alleviation accomplishments have been dubbed a developmental miracle.

As someone trained in science, I appreciate Chinese leadership’s approach to tackling problems from a scientific perspective which includes a rigorous planning process, developing specific implementation measures, extensive monitoring, seeking feedback, and of course correction.

For poverty alleviation, this meant developing five methods to deal with different situations: creating sustainable micro-business to foster industry, relocating people out of remote areas, providing education and training, offering ecological compensation for those inhabiting ecologically vulnerable areas, and ensuring social security, medical subsidies, and direct payments for those who cannot work.

All countries should recognize the critical importance of the fight against poverty and methods to motivate officials to prioritize poverty alleviation in the hierarchy of values in their work. This can come only from the top down. This is an important experience China can share with the rest of the world.

Dr. Robert Lawrence Kuhn (LIU RONG)

Dr. Kuhn interviews villagers during an investigative tour of Guizhou in November 2017.

Dr. Kuhn (back) and Yao Hai, Party secretary of Daijing Village, Guizhou, take a motorcycle ride to visit households in remote areas.

A screen grab taken from documentary Voices from the Frontline: China’s War on Poverty.

THE BIGGEST NEWS STORY OF 21ST CENTURY

“Never have so many people had their lives materially and educationally changed for the better in such a brief span of time”

By He Jing

Malcolm Clarke (WANG HONGQIANG)

Since his first visit to Beijing in 1981, China has had a special place for filmmaker Malcolm Clarke. During his latest trip to Beijing, the Oscar-winning director recalled his 1981 visit to the Chinese capital.

Like most foreign guests who visited China in the early 1980s, Clarke stayed at the Beijing Hotel, which faces south toward Chang’an Avenue. Every morning he would wake up to ringing bicycle bells and was astonished to look out of his window and see the street flooded with hundreds of locals biking to work.

Nearly 30 years after his first China tour, Clarke returned to the country in 2013 to direct another documentary, Better Angels. Speaking about modern China, Clarke acknowledges that the country has completely changed, and that Beijing has become an impressive international metropolis radiating hope and opportunity.

As a veteran storyteller, Clarke believes that finding emotionally engaging ways to tell stories about Chinese people can help the rest of the world better understand China.

China Report ASEAN: You have given China a lot of focus in recent years. Now you are working on a documentary on China’s poverty alleviation. Why did you choose this topic?

Clarke: When I first traveled extensively around China in the early 1980s, China was a very different place: far more rural, far less prosperous, with widespread poverty and underdevelopment. On my return in 2013 to make Better Angels, my most striking impression was a country undergoing unprecedented change, developing and progressing almost beyond comprehension. A tremendous social and economic revolution was underway which we, in the West, were woefully unaware of. It seemed to me that China had become, and would continue to be, the biggest news story of the 21st Century. And the heart of that story was directly related to China’s emergence from the grinding poverty I witnessed 35 years earlier.

While making Better Angels, I again traveled the length and width of the country to witness first-hand the remarkable evolution in living standards, health care, and education that seemed unimaginable back in the 1980s. Most strikingly, this “renaissance,” the unprecedented transformation of China, was happening largely beyond the awareness of most people in the developed world.

So much of what China has achieved in the past 35 years has been directly related to the Chinese peoples’ emergence from poverty. Throughout history, China has always been enormously creative, innovative, and industrious. The Chinese have never been afraid of hard work. But for centuries, their tremendous potential was thwarted, stifled by insurmountable poverty that compelled much of the nation to think about little else other than daily survival.

I saw a unique opportunity to enable Western audiences to witness a Chinese phenomenon that has happened millions of times in recent years. Smart, aspirational people with much to contribute were emerging from poverty and, in the space of just one generation, finally seizing the opportunity to fulfill their potential. These are fascinating stories that can serve as inspiration for us all.

This series had very modest ambitions. Our four short films merely scratch the surface of this colossal subject. Poverty alleviation is indisputably one of China’s signal achievements. It is unlocking the pent up energy, hopes, and dreams of many millions of people eager to improve their lives. This creates a never-ending supply of uniquely personal stories to chronicle this vastly successful example of social engineering. Never have so many people had their lives materially and educationally changed for the better in such a brief span of time. It’s an achievement fully deserving memorialization not just in the history books, but in films and fictions as well.

China Report ASEAN: Do you think China’s achievements in poverty alleviation have received enough recognition and attention in the world compared to China’s tremendous economic development? Does the world understand China’s efforts?

Clarke: As I have suggested, I feel China receives very little credit for many of its most significant achievements and accomplishments over the past 35 years, particularly in the area of poverty alleviation. Of course many reasons cause this. This is probably not the forum to discuss these issues in detail. The best people to tell Chinese stories are Chinese people.

China Report ASEAN: Do you think that focus on women is an important perspective of China’s fight against poverty?

Clarke: “Xiaokang,” as a system and policy for building a moderately prosperous society in all respects, has already brought vast changes and material benefits to the lives of those deemed its beneficiaries. But no one will have their lives more radically improved in the years ahead than Chinese girls and young women whose families were lucky enough to join the Xiaokang system.

For them, being born female into a highly traditional, village-based society often meant they were stuck on the very lowest rung on their rural society’s ladder, valued perhaps slightly higher than the family’s livestock, yet still subject to being bartered, bought, or sold by their family when times were hard. This is the reason our series of films places particular focus on the lives of girls and women and shows how Xiaokang has opened up a path for them to seize the opportunity to really “hold up half the sky.”

China Report ASEAN: What issues do you think remain as obstacles for China to solve female poverty? What more sustained efforts does China need to make?

Clarke: For too long, the major narratives of achievements and progress emerging from China that reached the West have predominantly featured male protagonists. In finance, politics, technology, science, and even the arts, laudable stories of innovation and accomplishment have tended to spotlight men. The only field of endeavors where Chinese women consistently fulfill their potential and “hold up half the sky” was the world of sports where China’s female athletes are respected, feared even, for their relentless pursuit of excellence. China still has far to go to level the wider playing field between men and women.

The sentiment that Chinese women hold up half the sky is admirable, but Chinese women still do not enjoy equality of opportunity. The female characters in our four films consistently face prejudice and discrimination and specific gender-based challenges and difficulties. A young woman seeking to earn a living as a truck-driver is accused of gaining her driver’s license through bribery. An old lady recounts being sold by her impoverished parents so the family could afford a couple of months of food. We heard stories of parents favoring sons over daughters to the point of sisters being made to wait and watch their brothers eat first. Girls could often eat only when leftovers remained after their brothers were full.

Obviously these types of inequities result from an age-old peasant cultural tradition that is difficult to dislodge and cannot be changed overnight. But one of the most powerful results of China’s Xiaokang policies is that children from rural China who for many decades had a very limited access to education now have the opportunity to benefit from modern education. Young girls are no longer forced to drop out of school after kindergarten or middle school to work in the fields as happened to one of our subjects. Education is the most powerful weapon in the Chinese arsenal to unlock the people’s vast potential, and the greatest number of beneficiaries, whose lives will be most radically changed by new-found access to education, will be legions of women who comprised half of China’s rural “underclass.” When the full potential of those stoic, hardworking women is finally tapped, Chinese society will become immeasurably more equitable while also benefiting from the tremendous influx of energy and under-appreciated talent.

China Report ASEAN: China’s battle against poverty has entered the final but toughest stage, with China eyeing completion of a moderately prosperous society in all respects by the end of 2020. In your view, what difficulties does China still face in reaching this goal?

Clarke: As a filmmaker I’m not an expert on such things, and I learned many years ago not to offer opinions in areas where I have mere anecdotal knowledge. So I won’t venture into suggesting what challenges China might face in the future. What I can say with some degree of conviction is that the people who have been lifted out of poverty still face immense challenges in their “new lives.” Material benefits and better living circumstances can create enormous dilemmas. Many of those people will be relocated to immeasurably better living circumstances. But with relocation comes both dislocation and alienation. Adaptation and integration into a new community and way of life is a challenging process.

China Report ASEAN: Will you follow up on the areas featured in the documentary? Will you continue focusing on China’s poverty alleviation?

Clarke: I’m always looking for strong, emotional stories that I can present through the art of film. It was no surprise that while researching our Xiaokang films, we found a trove of fascinating subjects, far more than we could possibly incorporate into this limited series. I hope that over time, many more Chinese and Western storytellers, artists, journalists, and filmmakers will find inspiration in this uniquely rich subject area which says so much about the spirit of the Chinese people.

I plan to remain in China for the foreseeable future. I’ll do what little I can to “interpret” my vision of China to the “outside world” to dispel misunderstandings and provide a more nuanced perspective on what is happening here.

China hasn’t always been greatly successful at representing the achievements of its people to the outside world. Perhaps my identity as a “foreigner” will help me communicate a few Chinese stories that represent some of the more admirable aspects of the Chinese people.

Malcolm Clarke and his production team at work.

Residents of Xiaoganxi Village in southwest China’s Yunnan Province move to new houses in Maojiawan, Ludian County, one of China’s largest poverty alleviation relocation sites.

ELEVATED GOALS

Japanese documentary director Takeuchi Ryo witnesses poverty alleviation on Daliang Mountain

By Xu Hao

Takeuchi Ryo(LU SONGJIANG)

Takeuchi Ryo may be the most widely recognized Japanese person in China this year.

The Japanese documentary director became an internet star overnight after Long Time No See, Wuhan was released online on June 26. In July, he ventured to Liangshan Yi Autonomous Prefecture in southwest China’s Sichuan Province to film a documentary about China’s poverty elimination efforts in the remote mountains.

In Liangshan, he rose at five every day to follow the farmers into the fields and shared meals in their homes. He witnessed the local Yi people celebrate their Torch Festival. He tasted the savory chicken roasted directly on the fire, which resulted in his mouth and cheeks getting smeared with ashes. He tried to visit a village on the cliff, but the trembling director gave up after finishing only a quarter of the steep steel ladders facilitating access.

Liangshan Prefecture, the region with the largest population of Yi people, is one of the three most impoverished prefectures in China. Before the People’s Republic was founded in 1949, this region was in a primitive state of slash-and-burn farming and bartering goods. Thanks to decades of hard work, substantial economic progress was achieved, but the overall development still lags behind many other areas.

According to China’s poverty alleviation plan, rural people living below the current poverty line should all rise out of poverty by the end of 2020. What changes has this plan brought to local people? Takeuchi Ryo has some first-hand observations.

Why Focus on Poverty Alleviation?

Takeuchi Ryo settled in Nanjing, capital of east China’s Jiangsu Province, in 2013 and opened a cultural firm there. He wanted to introduce Japanese culture to the Chinese audience via videos while showing Chinese culture to the rest of the world. Over the last seven years, he has continuously traveled, recording his adventures with his camera. His travel documentary The Reason I Live Here is very popular on the internet. So far, the 200+ episodes have been viewed 200 million times.

“We now live in a world of convenient transportation and free floating population,” goes the opening sequence of The Reason I Live Here, “so you need a reason to choose to live in a particular place.”

On why he shot a documentary on China’s fight against poverty, Ryo joked, “I was brainwashed by my cameraman.” He was referring to Xu Liang, who once worked in a school deep in Daliang Mountain, where he developed strong affection for such places. “I want to do a documentary on Daliang Mountain,” Xu told Ryo the day he joined the Japanese director’s team. Xu Liang’s persistence and confidence in the concept impressed Ryo. “Xu Liang never abandoned this dream.”

Xu told Ryo that while so much attention was placed on the COVID-19 impact on urban lives, little was paid to remote villages. And considering poverty alleviation has drawn intense focus from the Chinese government, especially this year, those conditions presented a prime opportunity. “I had been tracking urban life in Wuhan and Nanjing, and remote places were not on my agenda,” recounted Ryo. “But Xu Liang kept telling me how beautiful Daliang Mountain is and stressing the importance of poverty alleviation, so I finally decided to have a look there.”

While devising a shooting plan, Ryo learned that China Review Studio was seeking to produce a documentary about China’s poverty fight. “It was a great match,” said Ryo. “I wanted to see the changes taking place in the mountains that they were seeking to document. We made a comprehensive and true record of the local conditions. They let us shoot what we wanted and didn’t interfere. We were happy with the cooperation and looking forward to working with them again in the future.”

‘Enormous Changes!’

It wasn’t Ryo’s first trip up Daliang Mountain. He visited in 2010 when shooting the Yangtze River as a director at NHK. “We spent a whole year shooting the people living along the river,” he recalled. “We traversed more than 6,300 kilometers from the river’s source on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau to the coastal city of Shanghai where it empties into the sea. Daliang is near the upper reaches of the river. I knew little about the place back then.”

He had a harrowing experience which left him with lingering fear. The poor roads hanging off the cliffs had no guardrails at all. “We were done if we made the slightest mistake.” They had to ride donkeys when there was no road. “The villagers were very poor. They wore traditional Yi hats and clothes, and led very simple lives.”

Ryo continued shooting while traveling, as he tends to do. Upon his return, he was touched by the changes happening to the local people. He was surprised to find that although the farmers were still harvesting wheat by hand, a centuries-old method, they recorded their work in the fields with smartphones, editing the videos, and adding subtitles and music before posting them on short video platforms such as Kuaishou and Douyin. Some posts attract big followings, and huge view counts can earn cash.

“Enormous changes, really great!” Ryo exclaimed.

Of Sichuan’s 6.25 million registered impoverished people at the end of 2013, 881,000 lived in Liangshan. The province still estimates a poor population of 200,000 this year, with 178,000 in Liangshan. All of Sichuan’s seven poor counties and 300 poor villages are located in this prefecture. The seven counties will be removed from the poverty list this year if they meet relevant norms, and other relevant work is expected to be completed soon. The changes Ryo saw are largely results of China’s targeted poverty reduction endeavors.

Ryo’s team also visited the “cliff village” in Zhaojue County. Last May, all of the village’s 84 poor households moved into new houses in the county seat built with government subsidies. In the past, villagers had to climb two hours up treacherous ladders made of vines to access their homes on top of the mountain. Now their old village is a destination of brave tourists, while their spacious new homes below are equipped with sofas, TV sets, and washing machines—all provided by the government for free. “I asked about their new homes, and they all seemed to really love the improvements.”

The Chinese Method of Poverty Reduction

Though great changes have taken place in the mountains, those scenes still cannot compare to bustling life in Nanjing.

Liangshan is located in the Hengduan Mountain range, where 72 percent of the land is mountainous. Most poor villages perched in alpine regions suffer from difficult natural conditions. Relocation has proven a reliable way to help residents escape poverty. Today, enormous changes have taken place in the regions inhabited by Yi people: Roads link every village, villages have clinics, and towns have hospitals and schools. All children of appropriate age attend class now.

Poverty alleviation assistance should continue even after absolute poverty is eliminated and basic living needs are satisfied, said Ryo. He and Xu Liang went back to the school where Xu once worked. The classrooms had been renovated and the facilities looked good, but the teaching force was still weak. Every year volunteer teachers would come for a semester or so, but permanent faculty is still direly needed to enhance the quality of teaching.

The Chinese government has been focusing on policy stability and consistency in poverty alleviation. Even after absolute poverty is eliminated, major poverty relief policies will continue, local officials will continue with many of the same responsibilities, assistance will continue, and relevant supervision will continue to prevent people from falling back into poverty.

Ryo saw Yi women attend embroidery training at a workshop in their new residential quarters. They were being trained to fill orders for local cultural items already rolling in from e-commerce platforms. Such workshops enable traditional Yi culture to reach more people while creating stable jobs for local people. The women can earn money working near home instead of needing to venture to far-off cities as they often did in the past. Various other training programs are offered for cooks and electric welders.

“I talked with the village head,” said Ryo. “The villagers no longer live on the mountain top, but some still go back to work the fields, tend chicken coops, and graze sheep.” This measure adopted in Zhaojue allows some villagers to operate a breeding business to secure basic income.

“China is so huge that the east and the west are vastly different in development. Poverty alleviation is not easy,” Ryo said. “In Japan, we don’t have such a big development disparity. Our incomes, education, and infrastructure don’t vary much. So the Japanese hardly understand the conditions in China. But I know them well. It’s no easy job to narrow the rich-poor gap, manage the country, and maintain social harmony and stability.”

Soccer in the Mountains

Ryo devoted his last two shooting days to a student, Azuo Wule, from Wawu Primary School. The boy attended soccer training during the recent summer vacation. Thanks to a program funded by Real Madrid Foundation, top European coaching landed in his home county.

“He is highly talented,” Ryo said. “Life in the high mountains has given the boys pretty good athletic abilities.” He followed the boy to his home, where Azuo Wule showed Ryo how to weed the fields and graze cattle.

But such eye-opening opportunities for mountain children are few. Many kids haven’t seen much of the outside world. They crowded around Takeuchi Ryo upon hearing a Japanese person had come to their village. He was the first foreigner they ever saw outside TV.

“Many people living in eastern China have visited Japan. If they haven’t, their friends probably did. But here, the children have never seen a Japanese person. They know little about Japan. And their only knowledge about the country comes from TV shows,” Ryo said.

Ryo has gained a profound understanding of the great imbalance in regional development. He hopes local customs and ways of life can be preserved while desire for modern life is also satisfied. “This is an issue of philosophy.”

Ryo says Daliang Mountain is so beautiful that everywhere you look is a postcard worthy vista. He is sure that the place will only improve considering the diligence of the local people. Who knows what miracles the future holds? Maybe the boy will become the next global soccer sensation.

Takeuchi Ryo (center) with Azuo Wule (left), a Yi boy who attended a soccer camp organized by Real Madrid Foundation in Liangshan.

A selfie of Takeuchi Ryo and Yi boys while they train during a summer vacation.

Takeuchi Ryo visits a Yi embroidery workshop at the relocation site for villagers from the “cliff village,” where women are trained to fill orders for local cultural items.

L0041.T001.JPG

Of Sichuan’s 6.25 million registered impoverished people at the end of 2013, 881,000 lived in Liangshan. The province still estimates a poor population of 200,000 this year, with 178,000 in Liangshan. All of Sichuan’s seven poor counties and 300 poor villages are located in this prefecture.

UNDP RECOGNIZES CHINA’S HISTORIC ACHIEVEMENTS IN POVERTY ERADICATION

“The achievements made great contributions to the UN sustainable development goal of ending poverty”

By Zuo Lin

The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development was officially adopted in 2016 after it was approved by all United Nations (UN) members in 2015. Ending poverty in all forms everywhere tops the 17 goals envisaged by world countries. Beate Trankmann, resident representative of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in China, said in a recent interview that China’s achievements in poverty eradication over the last 40 years were historic. The achievements contributed greatly to achieving the first of the UN sustainable development goals (SDGs)—ending poverty, she remarked.

Inspiring Experience

Statistics from the UN showed that in 2015, more than 736 million people lived under the international poverty line, which was set at US$1.9 per day. Over the last 40 years since reform and opening up, China has seen its average income per capita increase by more than 25-fold and 850 million people escape poverty, accounting for more than 70 percent of the global poor population. China was the first developing country to meet the poverty reduction goal set by the UN.

Trankmann noted that the size and scale of China mean that everything it achieves is globally significant, as is progress in sustainable development. As a source of financing for infrastructure in developing countries, the Belt and Road Initiative has become an important driving force for connectivity in the field of investment and financing. In the future, the initiative should evolve towards ensuring global public goods. A key requirement would be that it stay aligned with SDGs and the demands of developing countries, according to Trankmann. She sees it as an inclusive way to boost environmentally friendly investment. For example, it creates decent jobs for participating countries.

China’s development experience offers substantial reference for other developing countries, Trankmann said. Despite contrasting national conditions, any country can draw experience from China’s development through South-South Cooperation platforms. While pursuing economic growth, China values environmental protection. She also called China’s targeted and bottom-up approach to poverty eradication inspiring.

She summed up the Chinese experience in three aspects. First, China makes overall evaluation on the situation on the ground house by house. It identifies where the poverty-stricken population live, what they lack, and what they need. Second, China devises tailor-made measures for each village in each county. For example, each village decides what to grow, breed, or sell based on local natural conditions, financial capacity, assets, and human resources. Third, poverty reduction progress is monitored and followed up household by household to verify effectiveness of the measures.

The Chinese government has invested a huge amount of manpower and other resources in eradicating poverty, said Trankmann. Since 2017, China has sent 775,000 officials to poverty-stricken villages to help the poverty fight. The country has also maintained financial input for poverty reduction. Last year, the central government allocated more than 126 billion yuan (about US$20 billion) for poverty eradication.

Leaving No One Behind

Although China has made great success in poverty reduction, it must remain alert, said Trankmann.

Poverty is not only about income; living standards are also affected by other factors such as access to education or medical care, she said. Disease and corresponding medical expenses are key causes of people returning to poverty, so affordable medical care is important. Similarly, quality education enables people to get a better job and higher income. With such factors considered, many around the world still remain “multidimensionally poor.”

“Multidimensionally poverty” is not only about economic deprivation, but also about deprivation at the household and individual level in terms of health, education, and standards of living. Particularly considering the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, poverty remains a daunting challenge.

The UNDP admitted that global human development, a measure that combines education, health and living standards, will decline this year for the first time since the concept was introduced in 1990. Shrinking income, limited social security, and ongoing rising prices mean that even those who once had social security now risk falling into poverty and hunger.

In China, the most vulnerable population hit hardest by the epidemic have been unofficial employees and laborers who make unstable salaries. They account for a large proportion of the working force. However, a survey by the UN showed that the poorest in China better withstood the immediate impacts of the epidemic than elsewhere. Trankmann attributed that success to China’s social relief system. Many places in China raised the minimum social security standards for both rural and urban residents. In addition, the digital economy has also empowered Chinese people and businesses to break restrictions brought by the epidemic.

She also noted inequality in access to technology. Not everyone can use the technology equally, she said, calling for efforts to leave no one behind in development.

Less than 10 years remain before the deadline for SDGs 2030 set by the UN. Moving faster is crucial. Trankmann suggested that while transiting to a green development path, China continues seeking balanced development. Many economic and social benefits, including 40 percent of global jobs, depend on a healthy and stable environment, she said.

Since 1979, the UNDP has been a partner in China’s development with poverty alleviation as a central component to that cooperation. Trankmann provided an example: In early 2016, the UNDP supported China’s Ministry of Science and Technology to launch a “Technical Task Force Program.” It aimed to provide farmers with environmentally friendly and locally relevant technology. Through the program, cutting-edge technologies managed to reach farmers, helping them increase their incomes and achieve sustainable development. Under the program, market approaches were introduced to traditional agricultural production in China’s rural areas. Since 2008, 1 million farmers have been benefiting from the program annually, with average income growing 10 percent every year. From 2012 to 2014, the program was expanded to 31 provincial-level regions in China. A total of 75,000 technicians have been helping farmers increase their incomes and agricultural output.

Beate Trankmann

736 million people
US$1.9 per day
25 folds
850 million people
70 percent
Statistics from the UN showed that in 2015, more than 736 million people lived under the international poverty line, which was set at US$1.9 per day. Over the last 40 years since reform and opening up, China has seen its average income per capita increase by more than 25-fold and 850 million people escape poverty, accounting for more than 70 percent of the global poor population. China was the first developing country to meet the poverty reduction goal set by the UN.

POSSIBILITIES FOR ENDING POVERTY

By Kishore Mahbubani

All who promote human rights should emphasize the ability to exercise five fundamental human rights: the right to live in safety without being killed, the right to have enough to eat to avoid starvation, the right to basic medical care, the right to education, and the right to a job with income.

For this reason, it is important that the rest of the world understand recent developments in China. Over the past 40 years, China has delivered these five basic rights to its people faster and more comprehensively than any other country has done in human history. Some statistics testify to how remarkable China’s development has been.

As recently as 1980, close to 100 percent of the Chinese people in the rural areas were living in poverty. By 2016, the rural poverty had declined by 95.5 percent. Looking at the overall picture of the entire population of China, we can see that figures of poverty reduction are just as strong. In 1980, over 90 percent of the total population of China (981,000,000) was living on less than US$3.2 a day. By 2016, the number had fallen to 5.4 percent. That is a breathtaking reduction. The proportion of schoolchildren with access to secondary school rose from 43 percent in 1980 to 88 percent in 2010. The proportion of students attending university rose from 1.13 percent in 1980 to 50.6 percent in 2018. Similarly, the percentage of people able to access medical clinics also went up. The number of hospitals in China grew from about 10,000 in 1980 to over 33,000 in 2018. And the number of hospitals per thousand people went up from 2.23 in 1980 to 4.2 in 2012. It has not been a surprise that in China, life expectancy increased from 66.8 years in 1980 to 76.7 years in 2018.

This Chinese story of unprecedented human development is important for the world to understand. Even in the year 2020, 2 billion people in Asia, Africa, and Latin America still live below the poverty line—26.4 percent of the world’s population. The most important thing we need to do for those 2 billion people is to rescue them from poverty. While many economists argued eliminating poverty was an impossible mission, China’s story proved even the most daunting poverty alleviation tasks can be achieved.

Why did China succeed? The country carried out effective policies both domestically and internationally with an aim to achieve these poverty reduction goals.

I have often thought that for countries to come, they should follow the magical MPH formula that stands for meritocracy, pragmatism, and honesty. And the embrace of the MPH formula in China has caused markedly improved quality of governance.

Meritocracy means that the Chinese government is able to select the best people to work and serve in many agencies of government. When you have good governance, you can implement optimal policies to improve living standards. Pragmatism means that China has found a unique ability to introduce the best policies from those tried around the world, learn best practices, and implement them in a pragmatic fashion. History shows that countries that can fight corruption and ensure that state resources are used to help the people rather than ending up in private coffers have the best chance at succeeding.

On the international front, China has carried out optimal policies by integrating with the liberal rules-based international order. Data clearly shows China’s poverty dropping sharply after China joined the World Trade Organization in 2001. Countries that want to eliminate poverty should be open to international trade.

Poverty reduction is the noblest mission in the world. If the world can replicate China’s experience in poverty reduction, we will achieve the greatest improvement in human conditions since history began.

This article is based on a speech at Vision China.

kishore mahbubani

About the author Kishore Mahbuban is a professor at National University of Singapore and former Singaporean Ambassador to the United Nations.

CHINA’S POVERTY ELIMINATION A MAJOR STEP FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

By Jeffery Sachs

The idea of sustainable development imagines the whole world enjoying an economic system that is prosperous, fair, and environmentally sustainable. The idea of sustainable development combines economic objectives, social justice, and environmental sustainability. The concept seeks to enable everybody on the planet to enjoy a good life.

China has made major contributions towards sustainable development: ending poverty within China and, most importantly, helping other countries acquire basic infrastructure through projects such as the Belt and Road Initiative. China’s very rapid growth, especially since 1978, has been based on three basic pillars: investing in health and education for the people, building infrastructure so that power, connectivity, roads, rail, and airports all drive up productivity, and enabling businesses to create new products and new markets. These are three kinds of investment: investment in people, investment in infrastructure, and investment in the business economy.

I am pleased with programs like the Belt and Road Initiative and China’s investment in African infrastructure as part of the solution for eliminating poverty and achieving sustainable development.

Globally, considerable progress was made in fighting poverty until this year. The rate of global poverty declined to 10 percent by 2015 from 30 percent in 1990. China played a huge role in that shift because it was overwhelmingly poor. It first eliminated basic poverty and then extreme poverty as of this year. But two problems remain: First, there are still hundreds of millions of people living in real desperation, especially in Africa. And second, COVID-19 has caused a big setback and become a serious crisis for poor people in many parts of the world. Therefore, the challenge is not only completing a process that was underway, but also stopping the pandemic so we can recover some of the ground lost this year.

I envision a three-part process. The first is ending the epidemic as soon as possible by using the method China used. Hopefully, vaccines developed by China and other countries will become available in the next year or two. The second is to broaden economic development through initiatives like the Belt and Road Initiative. The key to success of such programs is ensuring they are anti-pollution, sustainable, renewable energy-based initiatives. And then the third part should be targeted to places still grappling with entrenched poverty, probably due to their geography or history. These places lack basic infrastructure and need a special kind of help. China excels at developing an integrated framework of combining infrastructure, human investment and business development. China could use its capacity to do that in parts of the world that are still battling entrenched poverty.

When I was asked to visit western China in the early 2000s, the idea was that China would use its development planning and its public investments to spur growth in places that had been left behind by the first 20 years of rapid growth. China is very good at putting together big investment projects, big industrial projects, and big-time efforts in social development, health and education and other sectors. With such abilities, even very-hard-to-solve places can also escape from poverty.

We should be working for a world in which prosperity is shared everywhere. We need to enhance multilateral cooperation, and China and the United States must deepen consensus in various fields to improve cooperation. The significance of China-US cooperation is not only about containing COVID-19, but also about gaining progress in technological reform and building a digital world. This is the only way to build a better world.

This article is based on the author’s speech at Vision China.

Jeffery Sachs

About the author Jeffery Sachs is Director of the Center for Sustainable Development at Columbia University and President of the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network.