Poverty Relief in China

中国的减贫故事

Fréttablaðið Publishes a Signed Article by Ambassador Jin Zhijian

驻冰岛大使金智健在冰岛《消息报》发表署名文章

14 January 2021

2021年1月14日

Poverty eradication is a common task for mankind, and even more challenging for China as the biggest developing country with largest population in the world. When the People’s Republic of China was founded in 1949, it was one of the countries with the highest poverty rate in the world. The rural population, which accounted for 87% of the country’s total population, was generally in extreme poverty. With unremitting efforts over the past 70 years, China has lifted 850 million people out of poverty with an annual record over 10 million since 2013. By 2020, all the impoverished rural population have been out of poverty according to the current poverty standard and China has achieved the Sustainable Development Goal of ending poverty ten years ahead of schedule, contributing over 70 percent to the world’s poverty reduction. China has written a most brilliant chapter in human history with its successful story in poverty relief. Here are our main experience and practice:

消除贫困是人类面临的共同问题，对于世界第一人口大国和最大发展中国家的中国而言更是一项艰巨的任务。1949年新中国成立时是世界上贫困率最高的国家之一，占全国人口总数87%的农村人口普遍处于极端贫困状态。经过70年治理贫困的不懈奋斗，中国成功实现8.5亿人摆脱贫困， 2013年起连续每年减贫1000万人以上，中国已于2020年实现现行标准下农村贫困人口全部脱贫，提前10年实现《联合国2030年可持续发展议程》减贫目标，对世界减贫贡献率超过70%，中国通过自身实践书写了人类历史上“最成功的减贫故事”。中国减贫主要经验和做法如下：

First, advancing ceaselessly the cause of poverty-relief with great importance attached by the government. Eliminating poverty, improving people’s livelihood, and achieving common prosperity are important missions and goals of the Communist Party of China. The Chinese government attaches great importance to poverty relief and has prioritized it in its first centenary goal. China put forward a series of major plans in this regard with unremitting efforts. While promoting economic development, the Chinese government has provided constantly financial input on poverty relief. The Chinese central government spent 146.1 billion yuan (22.3 billion US dollars) on poverty relief in 2020, which provided a sound guarantee for poverty eradication.

一是政府重视，坚持扶贫。消除贫困、改善民生、实现共同富裕，是中国共产党的重要使命和奋斗目标。中国政府高度重视贫困治理问题，把脱贫攻坚作为实现第一个百年奋斗目标的重点任务，作出一系列重大部署和安排，持之以恒，不懈努力。在推动经济发展的同时，中国政府持续增加减贫资金投入， 2020年中央财政扶贫资金投入达1461亿元人民币（约合223亿美元），为消除贫困提供了坚实保障。

Second, taking science-based and targeted poverty relief measures. China has a large poor population inhabited in a wide range of areas. The causes of poverty are different, making it difficult to reduce poverty. Proceeding from our national conditions, we creatively take targeted poverty reduction and elimination as the basic strategy. We have registered all impoverished households, organized vocational training, developed industries with local features, established a mechanism for ecological compensation, facilitated resettlement of poor residents to better-off areas, covered those who have partially or completely lost the ability to work by social security. With such tailor-made measures, we have maximized the effect of poverty relief.

二是科学施策，精准扶贫。中国贫困人口基数大，分布区域广，致贫原因各异，减贫难度较大。我们从自身国情出发，创造性的实施精准扶贫、精准脱贫方略，通过建档立卡摸清贫困人口信息、开展职业技能培训、扶持发展特色产业、探索生态补偿脱贫、实行异地搬迁、推行社保政策兜底等多种方式，因地制宜、对症下药，实现扶贫效果最大化。

Third, making concerted efforts in poverty relief with wide participation. We have done full justice to the strengths of Socialism with Chinese Characteristics and coordinated all our efforts to complete key national undertakings. We mobilized all social sectors and resources to fight poverty with coordinated efforts of government, market and society. Provinces with better economic conditions are paired up with less developed ones. Targeted assistance is provided to those in need. “10,000 enterprises assisting 10,000 villages” campaign and the mechanism of stationing officials in villages to work on poverty relief has been introduced. By effectively integrating all resources, we have formed a trans-regional, trans-departmental, and trans-industrial poverty relief process to which all government agencies, companies, social organizations and individuals are forging synergies in achieving the same goal.

三是多方参与，共同扶贫。我们充分发挥中国特色社会主义制度集中力量办大事的优越性，坚持推动全社会参与扶贫，构建政府、社会、市场协同推进的扶贫格局。通过东西部扶贫协作、定点扶贫、“万企帮万村”、干部驻村帮扶等机制，有效整合各方资源，积极开展公共与私营部门合作，形成跨地区、跨部门、跨领域、全民参与的社会扶贫体系，凝聚起全社会共同扶贫发展的强大合力。

While advancing poverty alleviation at home, China has always provided assistance to other developing countries to the best of its capacity and contributed to the global poverty reduction. In the past 70 years, China provided financial aid of over 400 billion yuan to nearly 170 countries and international organizations and carried out over 5,000 assistance projects overseas, having dispatched more than 600,000 personnel, trained over 12 million from other developing countries and assisted over 120 developing countries to realize the Millennium Development Goals. China has set up the China-UN Peace and Development Fund and the South-South Cooperation Assistance Fund, and made solid progress in cooperation projects under such frameworks as the Pilot Project of Poverty Reduction Cooperation in East Asia and the China-Africa Poverty Reduction and People’s Welfare Plan. Warmly received by Asia, Latin America, Africa and Europe, the Belt and Road Initiative is expected to help lift 7.6 million people out of extreme poverty and 32 million out of moderate poverty. China has recently put together a selection of poverty reduction cases in the form of a book titled Eradication of Poverty: China’s Practices to share its experience with the world.

中国在推动自身减贫进程的同时，积极参与国际减贫事业，在力所能及范围内向广大发展中国家提供帮助。过去70年，中国累计向近170个国家和国际组织提供援助资金4000多亿元，实施各类援外项目5000多个，派遣60多万援助人员，为发展中国家培训各类人员1200多万人次，为120多个发展中国家落实千年发展目标提供帮助。中国设立了“中国—联合国和平与发展基金”和“南南合作援助基金”，并在“东亚减贫合作倡议”、“中非减贫惠民合作计划”框架下扎实推进合作项目。“一带一路”倡议在亚洲、拉美、非洲、欧洲等地区得到积极响应，预计将帮助760万人摆脱极端贫困，3200万人摆脱中度贫困。中国撰写了《消除绝对贫困，中国的实践》扶贫案例选编，同各国分享中国的减贫实践与经验。

Global poverty alleviation efforts have scored huge progress, but the difficulties and challenges are still severe. With the strong impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the global effort, international community needs to build a consensus and work together to uphold multilateralism, maintain peace and stability, as well as accelerate the process of international poverty reduction. China is committed to be an active advocate and important contributor to the cause of poverty relief, and stands ready to promote international cooperation so as to achieve common development of all countries and a better future shared by all.

当前，在各方共同努力下，全球减贫事业取得长足进展，但面临的困难和挑战依然严峻。新冠肺炎疫情蔓延给全球减贫事业带来严重冲击，迫切需要国际社会凝聚共识、携手合作，坚持多边主义，维护和平稳定，加快推动全球减贫进程。中国愿继续做世界减贫事业的积极倡导者和重要贡献者，助力减贫国际合作，促进各国共同发展，推动构建人类命运共同体。