Xi Jinping says China has invaded extreme poverty

Chinese President, Xi JinpingThis Wednesday said that China It has eradicated extreme poverty after lifting nearly 99 million people out of poverty in the past eight years, according to Spanish agency EFE.

Today we solemnly declare (…) complete success in combating poverty in the country. “Regional poverty issues have been resolved,” Xi said at a ceremony held in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing.

The president said China has completed this “arduous task” of eradicating extreme poverty. According to Xi, this is “another Chinese miracle that will go down in history”, “an example to follow” for other countries and an achievement on the centenary of the founding of the Chinese Communist Party.

Xi said that 832 rural counties and 128,000 townships had been lifted out of poverty “by current standards.”

According to the heads of the China Poverty Reduction Bureau, the state threshold calculated in real purchasing power is $ 2.2 per day. In 2019, the extreme poverty line in China reached 4,000 yuan per year, which is about $ 1.6 per day, while the limit set by the World Bank in 2015 is $ 1.9 per day.

The president added that it is “a new achievement in adopting Marxist theories of the characteristics of China.”

“Since reform and opening up in the late 1970s, 770 million rural people have been lifted out of poverty, calculated based on the current threshold. China has contributed more than 70 percent to global poverty reduction during this period, the state agency said. Xinhua.

Since taking the eleventh position as General Secretary of the Communist Party of China in 2012, he has begun touring dozens of impoverished villages. China set itself the goal of ending extreme poverty by 2020 in 2012, ten years before the United Nations Millennium Development Goals.

According to the Chinese president, since 2012, the homes of more than 25.68 million people have been rehabilitated, and more than 9.6 million Chinese have been relocated from the poorest regions, most of which are located in inhospitable and mountainous areas.

While local officials assured EFE that these deportations are entirely “voluntary” and “necessary” so that residents have “water, food, a safe roof and they can advance,” NGOs denounced the lack of transparency in the programs used to achieve the goal.

“The NGOs question whether the government consulted with their recipients or if the communities were able to freely express their views without fear of reprisal,” EFE said.