China’s Final Victory in the Fight against Extreme Poverty 

Published: May 12,2023

China’s fight against poverty entered a critical stage after the 18^th CPC National Congress in 2012. At the end of 2020, through eight years of hard work, China achieved the goal of eliminating extreme poverty–akey goal for the new era of building socialism with Chinese characteristics. The 98.99 million people in rural areas that were living below the poverty threshold all shook off poverty. All the 128,000 impoverished villages and 832 designated poor counties got rid of poverty. China has eliminated poverty over entireregions and eradicated extreme poverty. 

The battle against poverty has been another great revolution in rural China, leading to historic and comprehensive changes. The campaign saw an end to the backwardness of poverty-stricken areas, boosted overall rural development, resolved the greatest threat to success in achieving moderate prosperity in all respects, and laid a solid foundation for building a modern socialist China and realizing the Second Centenary Goal. 

China has secured a complete victory in the battle against extreme poverty, eliminating overall and extreme poverty for the first time in its history of thousands of years, and realizing a century-long aspiration of the Chinese people. 

There has been a substantial improvement in the incomes and welfare of the poor. The Two Assurances and Three Guarantees [This refers to assurances of adequate food and clothing, and guarantees of access to compulsory education, basic medical services and safe housing for impoverished rural residents.] have been realized; education, healthcare, housing and drinking water supplies are much improved. These provisions have covered all basic needs and laid the foundations for future development. 

The fight against poverty has led to dramatic changes in the lives of the impoverished. The incomes of the impoverished are increasing. The per capita disposable income of the rural poor increased from RMB6, 079 in2013 to RMB12, 588 in 2020, up by 11.6% per annumon average. The growth rate was 2.3 percentage points higher than the national rural average. Their salary income and operative income kept increasing over the years in proportion to their transfer income, showing a stronger ability to shake off poverty through their own efforts. 

Ethnic minority areas have made notable progress in fighting poverty. From 2016 to 2020, in the five autonomous regions (Inner Mongolia, Guangxi, Tibet, Ningxia and Xinjiang) and three provinces with a largemulti-ethnic population (Guizhou, Yunnan and Qinghai), the number of the poor dropped by 15.6 million. 

Extreme poverty was eliminated in all 28 of the minority ethnic groups with a small population. Some ethnic 20 groups, still at the later stage of primitive society when the PRC was founded in 1949, leapfrogged to socialism and then again made great strides towards moderate prosperity in all respects. 

The Two Assurances and Three Guarantees have been realized. According to the national survey of poverty alleviation [The national survey of poverty alleviation is a full review of China’s progress in fighting poverty and has a fundamental importance for targeted povertyalleviation. From 2020 to 2021, the survey was conducted in 22 provinces and equivalent administrative units in central and western China, focusing on the veracity of poverty alleviation results, particularly the overall progress in designated poor counties. 

The survey includes registration of 21 poverty-stricken populations, progress in the Two Assurances and ThreeGuarantees, participation of the impoverished in poverty alleviation programs, and basic public services in poor counties and villages. ], poor households now have adequate food and clothing all year round and aproper supply of nutritious food. They have clothing for all four seasons and comforters that protect them from cold weather. 

Access to good quality education for the impoverished has improved remarkably; there are no dropouts in the countryside due to financial difficulties; nine-year compulsory education is now available to all children from rural poor households, and the completion rate in 2020 was 94.8%. 

The three-tier healthcare system at village, township and county levels has been improved. All poverty-stricken populations now have access to basic medical insurance, critical illness insurance, and medical assistance, to ensure medical treatment to the impoverished with major illnesses, contracted healthcare to the impoverished with chronic diseases, and guaranteed medical services for the impoverished with critical illnesses. Basic medical insurance coverage of the poor is now over 99.9%. 

All the impoverished have been guaranteed medical services and medical insurance. Through these measures, China has resolved the problem of difficult and expensive access to medical treatment for poverty-stricken residents.

The program of renovation of dilapidated rural homes ensured safe housing for all the impoverished. The program of safe drinking water for rural residents secured supplies to 28.89 million poor in terms of both quantity and quality, and benefited 382 million rural population; tap water coverage increased from 70% in 2015 to 83% in 2020.

Source: The State Council Information Office of the People’s Republic of China (April 2021)