Beijing has achieved remarkable results helping hundreds of millions of Chinese citizens to escape from dire poverty to lead more rewarding and productive lives ever since the late Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping had introduced the reform and opening up policy over 40 years ago. The new policy had urged all Chinese to take responsibility for themselves and to embrace more free market principles.
Hence, the Chinese could transform their lives by working hard, assuming financial risks and taking control over their own fates. Farmers began to boost agriculture supply so the citizens had plenty to eat while food prices stayed at relatively low prices.
Many families migrated to the cities after the domestic manufacturing started booming after the launch of FTZ’s (Free Trade Zones), a policy that offered subsidies and tax breaks for companies building factories, warehouses, and offices at designated zones.
More and more Chinese cities started popping up on account of FTZs and an upsurge of foreign direct investments (FDI). You had hundreds of millions of migrants moving to Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Chongqing, Xi’an, Wuhan, Hangzhou, Xiamen, and so many other metropolitan areas in the country.
China’s bold urbanization strategy had attracted many migrants in search of higher paying jobs and opportunities. The nation’s education system stood paramount as children from poor families still could make themselves richer if they studied hard and scored high on college entrance exams.
And in recent years, Beijing has built huge infrastructure and trying to to improve living standards in the rural regions, since many Chinese cities have reached full development and migrants may wish to return to their rural hometowns. Poor farming villages are getting renovated into more prosperous towns and cities.
To eradicate poverty completely in China, Beijing has to implement a balanced regional development policy and Chinese President Xi Jinping has taken charge of those plans. Rural development has become much more crucial to China’s success story.
So let’s a closer look at how President Xi has championed rural development by reviewing an article posted by Xinhua. The link is here:
As reported by Xinhua:
“Efforts should be made to strengthen the leadership of grassroots Party units in the rural areas, Xi said, noting that the practices of rural residents' self-governance should be further explored.
Xi also called for measures to promote two-way flow and equal exchange of factors, including human resources, lands and capital, between urban and rural areas.
‘The task to eradicate extreme poverty must be fulfilled by 2020,’ Xi stressed.
Implementation of the rural revitalization strategy and seeking progress in work related with agriculture, rural areas and farmers should be taken into consideration and promoted in the overall economic and social development, Xi said.”
Meanwhile, we can take a closer look at the real results of China’s poverty eradication projects. The World Bank claims that from 1981 to 2015, over 850 million Chinese citizens have risen above poverty levels.
That’s a huge number. For example the US population is 327 million; Indonesia - 264 million and Brazil - 209 million. By combining the populations of these three countries the total is at around 800+ million. Accordingly, more Chinese escaped poverty than all people living in the US, Brazil and Indonesia combined.
Nevertheless, Beijing continues marching ahead and hopes all Chinese can rise above the poverty level. The nation’s population is at around 1.4 billion so to make that happen is no small feat. China deserves greater recognition for eliminating the scourge of poverty nationwide.
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