Xi Jinping makes bold pledge of ending poverty in China by 2020

World Today

Xinhua Photo

In a bold statement, Chinese President Xi Jinping has said that China will lift 70 million the people out of poverty in five years, effectively ending poverty in the country using Chinese poverty levels.

“Although China has made remarkable achievements seen across the world, China remains the worlds biggest developing country. To bridge the development gap between urban and rural areas is a difficult challenge for us. To build a moderately prosperous society in an all around way is the goal of all Chinese people. None of them can be left behind,” Xi said, addressing the Global Poverty Reduction Forum in Beijing on Friday.

“In the next five years, the more than 70 million people under poverty — under Chinese standards — will be out of poverty. This is an important step in implementing China’s development agenda after 2015.”

To achieve this, China will make poverty-relief efforts a main component of economic and social development planning, Xi said.

China bases it’s poverty line on 2,300 yuan ($362) annually or about $1 a day. More than 600 million Chinese people have been lifted above the Chinese poverty line over the past 30 years.

Last year Zheng Wenkai, vice-minister of an office for poverty alleviation and development under China’s State Council, said that China achieved great success in helping nearly 40 million poor rural residents overcome poverty last year.

“However, poverty is still a salient problem in China,” he said, adding that 82 million people (2013 numbers) are still trapped in poverty using China’s poverty level, and 200 million according to the World Bank standard of $1.25 a day. The number of poverty-stricken people account for 15 percent of the total population in China, by the international standard.

World Bank explanation on poverty levels:

Xi also said China has been working hard to reach the U.N.’s Millennium Development Goals, and is the first developing country to meet the target of reducing the population living in poverty by half ahead of the 2015 deadline.

He also said China is committed to eradicating global poverty under the framework of South-South Cooperation (SSC) and hopes to alleviate all populations living beneath $1.25 per day by 2030.

During his visit to U.N. Headquarters in New York last month, Xi pledged a $2 billion fund to facilitate developing countries’ implementation of the post-2015 development agenda. It will also invest at least $12 billion in the least-developed countries by 2030, and relieve debts owed by these countries due in 2015.

Story by CCTV News.