On December 27th, the 2016 China Poverty Alleviation and Development Report, the Blue Book of Poverty Alleviation was published, co-edited by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS) and the State Council. The Blue Book pointed out that 2016 was the starting year of the battle against poverty with a financial funding from central and provincial governments exceeding 100 billion yuan for the first time and more than 10 million people lifted out of poverty.
Government leadership showing institutional advantage
The Blue Book concluded the main practices of poverty alleviation in China since the reform and opening up: adhere to poverty alleviation through development, improving the self-developing ability of poor areas and people, precise poverty alleviation, innovative poverty alleviation and the poverty alleviation operation system of “government leading, people acting and society participating .
According to Fan Xiaojian, the Director of the Expert Consultative Committee of the Poverty Alleviation and Development Leading Group of the State Council, political and institutional advantage is the most significant fundamental experiences of China’s poverty alleviation work. “I communicated with some officials from developing countries and they told me frequently that China’s poverty alleviation experience was valuable but also difficult to copy, since they don’t have such a political party and institution which enabled them to work together heading towards the same goal of poverty alleviation.” Fan Xiaojian said, “We can see from these foreign officials’ views that making the most of our political and institutional advantages is one of the most fundamental experiences.”
Song Hongyuan, the Director of the Research Centre for Rural Academy of the Ministry of Agriculture pointed out that different from other countries, China takes poverty alleviation as part of the distribution and plan of the entire country. “Since the mid-1990s, China made three plans one after another. The point is that the plan must be implemented in scale and in its entirety. Besides, poverty alleviation was particularly emphasized in the action plan.” said Song Hongyuan.
70% contribution from China
“Without the outstanding contribution of China, it’s impossible to achieve the target of cutting poverty-stricken population by its half, which is the most important part of United Nation’s Millennium Development Goals.”——that’s how the Blue Book described China’s contribution on global poverty reduction. Statistics showed that from 1981 to 2012, people getting out of poverty in China takes up 71.82% of its global counterpart.
Apart from lifting people out of poverty, China has also done a lot to increase people’s happiness. From 1990 to 2014, with China’s support, the Global Human Development Index reached target level two years earlier than planned; 45.6% of the population growth using improved drinking water in the world should be owed to China; China expended global average life span by more than one year.
Assistant Country Director of China Office of UNDP Gu Qing said that China made indispensable contribution for the successful implementation of Millennium Development Goals. From 1990 to 2015, China accomplished one third of the world’s poverty alleviation task. “Many poverty alleviation strategies of China are quite fit with the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda of the United Nations, such as its stress on a broader participation body and the sustainability of society and environment.” Gu Qing introduced that UNDP would develop closer cooperation with the Poverty Alleviation Office of the State Council of China, and further spread Chins’s poverty alleviation experiences to the whole world and give innovative research and project advantage a full play, setting example for global poverty alleviation work.
The future of poverty alleviation relies on cooperation
During the 13th Five-Year Plan period, China’s poverty alleviation still faces great difficulties and challenges such as macroeconomic adjustment, climate change, natural disaster, market fluctuation, etc. According to the Blue Book, during the 13th Five-Year Plan period, precise poverty reduction and alleviation are the fundamental strategies of poverty alleviation, focusing on improving the ability of poverty-stricken group with the cooperation among government, market and society, as well as innovative approaches and institutions, so as to combat poverty in a comprehensive, coordinative, sustainable and green way.
For Wang Xinhuai, the member of the Expert Consultative Committee of the poverty alleviation leading group of the State Council, precise poverty alleviation and regional development are supplementary to each other. “During the 13th Five-Year Plan period, the poverty alleviation plan of the 14 contiguous poor areas with special difficulties should adapt with the national 13th Five-Year Plan of Poverty Alleviation, which supports the sustainable and full development of poor areas. Without regional development, there would be no firm foundation for precise poverty alleviation and individual poverty alleviation, and problems can’t be resolved in the long run.”
Li Peilin, vice president of the CASS thought that poverty alleviation shouldn’t simply rely on government. All social members should make their contributions to explore a promising road of poverty alleviation career.
In Song Hongyuan’s eyes, poverty alleviation depends not only on government leadership but also a larger role played by the market. “Exemplified by rural poverty alleviation, market influences lots of new industries and business formats, such as countryside travel, health maintenance and characteristic towns.”