China’s State Council Information Office on April 6 issued a white paper titled “Poverty Alleviation: China’s Experience and Contribution.”

The white paper was issued to record the course of the Chinese people’s great fight in eliminating extreme poverty, introduce China’s approach, and share its experience and actions in poverty alleviation.

Noting that this year marks the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China (CPC), the white paper said the Party has united and led the Chinese people in the battle against poverty with unwavering faith and will over the past century.

The sustained and rapid economic development, strong institutional guarantees and policy support, and extensive participation of the whole society are the cornerstones of China’s rural poverty reduction success.

Economic growth

According to Lu Hanwen, director of the Institute of Poverty Reduction and Development in the Central Region at Central China Normal University, China’s poverty governance experience is mainly reflected in four aspects. First, Party committees and governments at different levels have led and organized poverty alleviation work, so that poverty governance remains high on the work agenda concerning economic and social development. The second is to adhere to development-oriented poverty alleviation. The third is to stimulate the initiative and creativity of poor communities. The fourth is to mobilize all sectors of society to participate in poverty alleviation and development.

Xiang Deping, a professor from the School of Sociology at Huazhong University of Science and Technology, said that poverty alleviation in China is industry-driven. Accustomed to local conditions, a poverty alleviation strategy based on industrial development and a variety of other approaches, has been formed. The market has played its role, with market forces participating in poverty reduction. Enterprises are introduced to poverty-stricken areas to carry out poverty alleviation based on industrial development.

Institutional guarantee

China’s experience in eradicating absolute poverty shows that economic development is an important factor in poverty eradication, but it is not the only factor. Li Xiaoyun, a professor at the College of Humanities and Development Studies at China Agricultural University, said that a prominent feature of China’s poverty reduction is setting the goal of ensuring that rural poor people have no concerns over food and clothing, and have access to compulsory education, basic medical services, and safe housing. It is also the basis for preventing the occurrence of poverty.

As such, under strong political guarantees, the goal of poverty alleviation is achieved through huge investment of resources. Meanwhile, an institutional basis for preventing poverty has been formed, which manifests through the equalization of education, medical care, and social public services, Li noted.

Xiang said that poverty alleviation is government-led. The government leads the formulation of poverty alleviation strategies and policies, the organization and mobilization of resources, the allocation of funds, the implementation of projects, and guides leading officials in poverty-stricken areas to focus on poverty alleviation and development.

Xiang highlighted the people-oriented approach as a key element in China’s poverty governance experience. This is fully reflected in poverty reduction actions, stimulating the motivation and confidence for development among the impoverished.

Social participation is vital, Xiang said. The Party and the government have mobilized and gathered forces and resources from society as a whole to participate in poverty reduction.

Way forward

The white paper proposes that after winning the battle against absolute poverty, China will continue to consolidate and expand the achievements of poverty alleviation, align with rural vitalization, and thus realize a historic shift of focus for work relating to agriculture, rural areas, and rural people.

The core task of China’s poverty reduction strategy for the next stage is to establish a sustainable long-term mechanism for rural poverty reduction. It is necessary to coordinate urban and rural poverty governance, establishing unified national poverty standards, governance systems, and policy systems for poverty in both urban and rural areas, said Wei Houkai, director of the Rural Development Institute at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

It is vital to formulate new national poverty standards in accordance with changes in the country’s comprehensive strength and development stages, and accelerate the comprehensive transformation of the national poverty reduction strategy, Wei noted. More focus should be given to relative poverty, realizing the transition from absolute poverty governance to relative poverty governance.

While alleviating poverty due to income, we need to pay more attention to multi-dimensional poverty governance, addressing factors that contribute to poverty other than income, Wei said. It is also vital to comprehensively coordinate urban and rural poverty control, effectively integrate rural poverty control with urban poverty control, and implement both rural and urban poverty reduction.