Poverty Alleviation in China

By Wang Ronghua and Ross Colquhoun

This book is about the work of poverty alleviation in China. The subject is vast in its far-reaching impact on the lives of literally millions of the poorest and most marginalized people and also in its geographic reach from villages and towns in the tropical far south, to the deserts of the far West to the mountainous regions along the great rivers of the central plains to the high country in the south west. Vast also in the involvement of all levels of government, the CPC and society. A subject so vast that it is impossible that one book can hope to provide a complete coverage of this remarkable program. However, by sketching the organizational structures at each level and then by providing detailed snapshots of a wide range of projects, the work of outstanding individuals and the people that have benefited that are typical of the work that is been carried forward across the nation, we hope the readers can comprehend the sheer vastness and complexity of this great undertaking.

• Language: English
• Publisher: New Classic Press
• Release date: Dec 3, 2023
• ISBN: 9781912553877

Book preview

Poverty Alleviation in China

A Modern-Day Wonder

Poverty Alleviation in China

A Modern-Day Wonder

Wang Ronghua  and Ross Colquhoun

New Classic Press

The United Kingdom

2021

NEW CLASSIC PRESS

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POVERTY ALLEVIATION IN CHINA:

A MODERN DAY WONDER

Wang Ronghua  Ross Colquhoun

ISBN 978-1-912553-87-7

Printed in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland

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Contents

Preface    ..........................................................................................................1

Foreword  ..............................................................................................................6

Chapter 1 Chixi: The First Poverty Alleviation Village in China................... 17

Chapter 2 The Campaigns for Fighting Poverty in Gansu ............................ 38

The Campaign against the Lack of Water ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,40

The Campaign against Desertification...........;..................................... 46

A Different Campaign...................................................................... 49

Reducing Poverty by Opening Terraced Fields..................................... 52

Promotion of Industries as a Chief Means to Reduce Poverty.................. 53

Resettlement of Entire Villages......................................................... 57

Chapter 3 How the Jinggang Mountains Cast off Its Shackles of Poverty ... 59

Firstly, the Red Card Households,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, 64

Secondly, the Blue Card Households ................................................65

What Have the First Village Party Branch Secretaries Been Doing? ..........67

The Model of 1+8+48 ......................................................................72

The Town of Hope Assisted by the China Resources (Holdings) Co Ltd .....73

The Story of Asparagus ...................................................................74

Two Delegates to the People’s Congress .............................................75

Jinggang Mountains Area Was Formally Lifted out of Poverty ..................79

Chapter 4 Yan'an Shines Again: A Sacred Place of Chinese Revolutionariess ................................................................................................83

Yan'an Was a Heartache for Sometime ...............................................85

The Changes Were Made; Not So Late! ..............................................87

Chapter 5 The First Case of Targeted Poverty Reduction .............................. 100

The Basic Experience of Targeted Poverty Alleviation at the Village of Eighteen Caves ...........................................................................................107

What Does the Practice of Targeted Poverty Alleviation at the Village of

Eighteen Caves Tell Us?  .......................................................................112

Chapter 6 Poverty Alleviation in Liangshan Yi Autonomous Prefecture ...... 122

Chapter 7 The 500-Year-Old Village of Va Nationality .................................. 143

Chapter 8 Two Heroes in Combating Poverty ................................................ 153

Huang Shiyan, a Model of Our Times .................................................154

Be a Good Frontline Commander ....................................................155

Utter Devotion to Poverty Alleviation ...................................................158

He Gave Unstintingly His Time and Care to the Development ..................160

Adhering to the Mindset of a Communist .............................................162

Mao Xianglin: the Foolish Man of Today ............................................164

We Shall Chisel Open the Mountain with Our Own Hands! ....................166

Failure Is Nothing to be Afraid of, We Should Go On! .....................;.....168

The Experience of Building the Road Can Inspire More People! ...........;..169

Chapter 9 How Poverty Alleviation Is Done at the County Level.................. 171

A General Picture of Du’an County .....................................................172

How Relocation of Poor Families Was Done..........................................173

What the County Did in Education ......................................................176

How Did the County Developed Industries? .........................................178

How Did the County Secure the Basic Living Allowance for the Purpose

of Poverty Alleviation? ....................................................................180

Chapter 10 How Poverty Alleviation Is Done at the Prefecture Level ........... 182

The Aksu Prefecture ........................................................................183

A New Trail Was Blazed by Good Party Member Management................184

Promotion of Poverty Alleviation by Finding More Job Opportunities ..........186

Doing a Good Job in Helping Poverty Alleviation with the Development

of Industries .................................................................................187

Precisely Targeted Poverty Alleviation Projects Take Care of People’s

Livelihoods ....................................................................................189

The Kashi Prefecture ........................................................................191

Hetian Prefecture ..............................................................................193

The Kizilsu Kirghiz Autonomous Prefecture .............................................195

C.hapter 11  How Poverty Alleviation Is Done at the Provincial and

National Level .............................................................................................. 199

Preface

This book is about the work of poverty alleviation in China. The subject is vast in its far-reaching impact on the lives of literally millions of the poorest and most marginalized people and also in its geographic reach from villages and towns in the tropical far south, to the deserts of the far West to the mountainous regions along the great rivers of the central plains to the high country in the south west. Vast also in the involvement of all levels of government, the CPC and society. A subject so vast that it is impossible that one book can hope to provide a complete coverage of this remarkable program. However, by sketching the organizational structures at each level and then by providing detailed snapshots of a wide range of projects, the work of outstanding individuals and the people that have benefited that are typical of the work that is been carried forward across the nation, we hope the readers can comprehend the sheer vastness and complexity of this great undertaking.

While we were writing, it was announced on November 23 that with the exclusion of nine counties in Guizhou Province, all 832 counties which were identified and listed in 2014 as living in dire poverty have been lifted out of poverty. We take this report as an indication of the accomplishment of the mission: By 2020, we’ll ensure the nation’s impoverished will no longer need to worry about food and clothing and ensure their access to compulsory education, basic medical care and housing; and that to lift rural people out of poverty, their net annual income should be higher than

2    Poverty Alleviation in China

––––––––

the existing poverty line, which is ¥4,000 for 2020, whereas it was ¥2,300 in 2010; a 6% increase every consecutive year. Since 2012, there have been over 100 million people of the rural population lifted out of poverty. This is why we call it a modern-day wonder.

His Excellency, President of the People’s Republic of China, Xi Jinping told the whole Chinese nation in his New Year Address on CCTV on the night of December 31, 2020: We launched the final assault on the fortress of entrenched rural poverty, and cracked this ‘hardest nut.’ Through 8 years, under the current standard, China has eradicated extreme poverty for the nearly 100 million rural people affected, and all the 832 impoverished counties have shaken off poverty.

To eradicate absolute poverty has, until now, only been a dream. Even though Yang Xiong ( 杨 雄 ) of the Eastern Han wrote A Rhapsody on Expelling Poverty ( 逐贫赋 ) and Han Yu ( 韩愈 ) of Tang wrote Farewell to Poverty （送穷文）, none were able to reduce poverty in their time, not to speak of eliminating it. But this is now a fact in China. This is the first time since the beginning of civilization for a human society to achieve this goal for all its people. It has not happened in any other country. In 2019, the poverty rate of China was 0.6%, the lowest in the world; no other country has a rate lower than China even though her population is over 1.4 billion. Eradication of absolute poverty was an objective set by the UN for 2030 for the whole world. China is ten years ahead of that deadline.

For us, the main reason to write this book is to provide a broad picture of what China has done in poverty alleviation. To achieve this task, we described: the village of Chixi, where the first action took place in China; the place where President Xi for the first time requested the precise targeting of relief measures based on local needs; we gave an account of the changes that took place in one of the most impoverished and remote places; we recorded how the old revolutionary base of the Jianggang Mountains took a lead in getting rid of poverty; we outlined how the conditions in

Preface 

Yan'an, the sacred place of Chinese revolution were disappointing and how it caught up in throwing off the shackles of poverty; we featured how minority areas and old mountainous villages managed to march together into the modern age with the rest of China; we described how the poverty alleviation work was organized and performed at the county, prefecture, provincial and state levels. There are many books about poverty alleviation in China. Most of them focus on one place or on one group of people, while there have been yearbooks that provide very few specific examples. This book fills the gaps by providing a comprehensive overview of this program.

Another reason to write this book is to provide an account for English readers of what has happened in poverty alleviation in China. Readers can discover how the work was done, who were doing it and what has been achieved. All the stories we have related are true stories. All names are true names of real places and people. We haven’t drawn any conclusions on any issues. Readers can discover for themselves why eradication of poverty was made possible in China. Eradication of poverty is a common goal for mankind. It is also one of the biggest challenges for the entire globe. China leads the world in this mission. It has been reported that the number of Chinese people lifted out of poverty in the last 30 years accounts for more than 70 percent of the world’s total. We hope what we have provided in the book can be of some value and reference for interested parties.

The work of poverty alleviation does not take place only in poor villages. Because the whole society has been mobilized, it involved many urban families, directly or indirectly. For instance, Professor Wang’s former superior Ambassador Wu Tao ( 武韬 ), who is now the Deputy Director of the Working Commission of Caring for the Next Generation, who served in Russia and Australia, made many long and bumpy trips to primary schools in poor areas in spite of his old age. The commission set up 50 exemplary schools, most of them in poor and remote areas. Ambassador Wu was a master-mind in getting funds for these schools, in providing equipment

4    Poverty Alleviation in China

for 200 clinics in the schools and for the funds and provision of a standard lunch for students in 1,000 schools in poor and remote areas. He refused to be interviewed, as he prefers to be an old and ordinary working member of the Communist Party. Some people around Ross when he was teaching in China were also involved with the education component in poverty alleviation. He personally encountered young students who volunteered in their holidays and when they completed their education to teach in the most remote and harsh regions of China; he taught many students from all regions of China and from many ethnic minorities, who could not have otherwise, without the provision of scholarships and the special arrangements to respect their culture and traditions, had the chance to attend universities in Tianjin and fulfil their and their parents’ dreams; and he talked with the academics and students who were part of the collecting, cataloguing and preservation of the highly valued intangible and tangible cultural heritage and ecology of these far-flung, diverse and traditional village peoples and ethnic minorities, upon which many industries were developed that saved them from extinction.

We are excited with the extraordinary achievements China has made in poverty alleviation. We were expecting drums and songs to celebrate the eradication of absolute poverty. But that didn’t happen. Maybe when the State Council Leading Group of Poverty Alleviation and Development has officially confirmed the results of the poverty alleviation program, then celebrations will take place when that checking is finished.

Moreover, there is still much work to be done to consolidate the gains and to sustain the industries, the jobs and infrastructure and services that have provided incomes for the people. Going forward there is the need for the integration of rural economies and revitalization to be tackled. To convert ¥4,000 into US dollars using the recent exchange rate of 6.455, is only US$620. According to a 2008 figure, the average annual per capita income of Iceland was US$41,000 and the Statistics Bureau of Iceland

Preface 

regards those whose income is less than 60% the national average annual per capita income as living under the poverty line, and in 2008 terms, the figure was US$24,600. Obviously, this is much higher than the present Chinese standard, nevertheless a realistic target that represented a very significant improvement in living standards for millions of the most disadvantaged people was set and achieved and there is a solid foundation in place to build on. China is a developing country. Getting rid of poverty is only one basic milestone for generating a comprehensive well-off society, and there is still a long way to go for China to reach commonly acceptable levels of prosperity for all her citizens.

So, maybe to soldier on is the best form of celebration.

References:

Full text of Xi Jinping’s 2021 New Year address CGTN December 31, 2020

China News Service, Beijing, December 30 2020. Reporter Ruan Yulin

China contributes to over 70% of global poverty reduction, Xinhua, December 28, 2016. www.china.org.cn/china/2016-12/28/content_39996987.htm

China to basically eradicate poverty by 2020. Xinhua. Updated: 2011-03-07. http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2011npc/2011-03/07/content_12124979

Poverty Alleviation Office of the State Council of China. The "Outline for

Development-Oriented Poverty Reduction in China’s Rural Areas (2011-2020)

Foreword

When Professor Wang kindly invited me to work with him on this important book, I felt most honoured and readily agreed because I thought it was an amazing story that needed to be told and secondly because I had taken a keen interest in the program and had witnessed the impact of the policy on the lives of the people during the time I worked in China. And I believed I could make a worthy contribution.

Recently the mainstream Western media has misrepresented the Chinese Government efforts to change the lives of millions of people who were living in extreme poverty and provide them with sustainable alternatives and vastly improved opportunities for a decent life for their children.

Relocating people from nonarable, infertile, arid and remote areas, providing retraining and jobs has been characterized as infringing on their human rights, as cultural genocide, as detention in re-education camps and as forced labour. These descriptions are a complete distortion of the reality as I know it. Moreover, it only considers one aspect of the program. Most impressive are the extraordinary infrastructure projects and the grassroots industries that have been forged in consultation with the people. For example, the massive engineering projects to divert water to arid areas and to turn deserts into farmland in Gansu that has improved the lives of millions of people and the development of eco-tourism.

This book provides several factual accounts of the implementation of

Foreword 

the programs from one end of China to the other. From Jiangsu in the east, to Tibet in far south west, to Gansu and Xinjiang on the far Western frontier, the program has not discriminated in its efforts to fairly alleviate the plight of the people and to preserve their culture and traditions, including the practice of their religions. It tells of people who have been moved from nonviable mountainous villages and arid desert regions, where there is no water, no income, or social services and non-productive farms to new towns where they have flourished, with jobs, business opportunities, schooling for their children and health care. Far from destroying the unique culture, traditions and languages of the different ethnic groups, the government has made a concerted effort to preserve this tangible and intangible inheritance through the funding of research institutes to document them, to design programs that are unique to each situation and to preserve and foster them.

The government has encouraged businesses to move from the east coast to remote areas to provide jobs and decent wages and services to these people. Along with that comes training and, in many instances, scholarships to schools and universities to train managers, engineers, accountants to run these enterprises. In consultation with the people the government has provided the funds and know-how to develop old and new industries based on the traditional crafts and natural resources of an area. From herb farms, to rafting and trekking, to apple orchards, to tea and silk manufacturing to craft stalls, businesses and cooperatives run by the local people are proliferating and bringing dignity to the lives of these people.

In another book by Professor Wang, Chinese Literature in 2019 (2020), he documents the many literary associations, festivals, awards and translation services that are designed to encourage and disseminate the literature of ethnic minorities. He also translates some examples of the beautifully written poems and prose of the wonderfully gifted ethnic minority authors. These initiatives represent efforts to preserve the stories of the history, language, culture and traditions of these nationalities in the

Poverty Alleviation in China words of the people.

Dr. Ross Colquhoun and his Chinese students

When I was in China, I learned of the work of institutes like the Feng Jicai Research Institute of Arts and Literature, at Tianjin University, where I worked, which along with many others, has undertaken this documentation and preservation work. I also travelled to many areas and witnessed the manifestation of the poverty alleviation program in its many forms. I travelled by bus from Nanning to the far south and went by raft into the Deitian water falls on the Vietnamese border, to the limestone caves of Benxi and red beaches of Panjin in Liaoning in the north-east, where the local people man the boats and stalls selling trinkets, street food, souvenirs and local crafts, to the ethnic markets in Urumqi in Xinjiang and Moslem Street in Xi’an to taste the local delicacies, to the Rock Forest World Heritage site in Kunming in Yunnan where the locals entertained the tourists with their music and songs, to Guilin I visited in 2009 and took the

Foreword 

boat trip through the majestic granite tors on the Li Jiang River to see the extraordinary dance theatre and light show on the water at Yang Suo. While there I caught a beautifully embroidered and tasseled ball, called a Xiu Qiu, which was thrown into the crowd and meant I was engaged to a local girl, who was a member of the village dancing troupe. After it was explained that I had to work in the rice fields for 6 months to win her heart I politely declined the offer! Instead, I bought some hand-woven table mats, which I still use in my house in Sydney

To illustrate my experience, I would like to recount a story of my visit to one of these projects in Shaanxi. It comes from my book, My Impressions of China (2021).

Preserving Traditional Chinese Villages and Intangible Culture

High above the plains in Shaanxi province north of Xi’an, ancient mausoleums and tombs litter the hillsides where lie the remains of the Tang Emperors and their wives and ministers. To enter a tunnel that dives down deep into the interior of a mountain lined with frescoes of long dead courtesans and princesses and figurines of the Emperors’ court has an eerie sense of being in the presence of some ritual carried out hundreds of years ago. Questions arise like smoke from a funeral-incense stick: How old were they when they died?