Poverty alleviation Archives - Friends of Socialist China

Jostein Hauge: This is why I’m Chinamaxxing

The following article by Jostein Hauge, political economist and an Associate Professor in Development Studies at the University of Cambridge, makes a clear and refreshing case for taking China’s achievements seriously. Hauge sets out the facts plainly – China’s unprecedented reduction of poverty, its leadership in clean energy, the scale and quality of its infrastructure, and its emergence as a counterweight to US hegemony – and insists that these gains are worth celebrating rather than treating, as so much Western commentary does, as a threat to be managed.

These are precisely the themes we explored in our recent webinar, Socialist Chinamaxxing: How China’s achievements are a product of its socialist system, which brought together speakers including George Galloway, Li Jingjing, Ben Norton, Danny Haiphong, Tings Chak, Chen Weihua, Ileana Chan, Keith Bennett and Qiao Collective to argue that China’s progress flows directly from its socialist system, and would not have been possible within a framework of capitalist rule.

We would, however, raise one friendly disagreement. Hauge writes that “China does not hold competitive national elections and practises considerable censorship”, and concludes that “China’s authoritarianism deserves real scrutiny”. In our view this concedes too much to the very liberal framework that the rest of his article so effectively challenges: the assumption that genuine democracy is defined by the Westminster parliamentary system, and that its absence amounts to “authoritarianism”.

This framing does not engage seriously with China’s socialist democracy. As we have argued, liberal democracy presents democracy as a purely procedural matter – periodic elections between rival capitalist parties – while obscuring the more fundamental question of which social class actually holds power. Meaningful democracy is not defined by what happens at the ballot box once every few years; it is about the ongoing participation of ordinary people in the running of society, and the degree to which the state is genuinely responsive to the needs of the majority. Measured this way – through its system of People’s Congresses combined with extensive structures of consultative democracy, and its consistent record of delivering for ordinary people – China’s socialist democracy can be considered to be more substantive than its Western counterparts, not less.

Xi Jinping has put the point sharply: a system in which “the people are awakened only at voting time and dormant afterward” is not true democracy.

Ignoring China’s poverty alleviation success is costing us all

In recent years, public discussion about China in the United States – and the West more generally – has been dominated by accusations, slander, McCarthyite fear-mongering and geopolitical posturing. The relentless anti-China narrative has meant that one of the most consequential social achievements of the modern era has been almost entirely ignored: China’s eradication of extreme poverty.

As global inequality deepens and economic insecurity becomes a defining feature of life for millions in the West, the refusal to seriously examine how China transformed the lives of hundreds of millions of people is a consequential political failure.

Megan Russell’s article for CODEPINK, republished below, confronts this silence head-on by juxtaposing two starkly different realities. On the one hand is the growing exposure, even within China itself, of the fragility of life in the US – a society where healthcare, housing and survival itself often rest on a razor-thin margin. On the other is China’s systematic, state-led effort to ensure its entire population can enjoy fundamental human rights: a minimum income level, guaranteed housing, adequate food and clothing, free healthcare, universal education, running water and access to modern energy.

Rather than treating poverty as an individual moral failing, China approached it as a structural problem requiring coordinated national action, public accountability and sustained investment in human well-being. The result has been the largest poverty alleviation campaign in human history.

Megan argues that the suppression of these facts in the US – through media omission, political censorship and ideological hostility – prevents meaningful learning at a moment when it is urgently needed. If global cooperation is to replace confrontation, and human needs are to take precedence over militarism and profit, then China’s experience must be examined honestly, not buried. The article concludes:

We need to stop funneling vast resources into military expansion and foreign intervention. We need to prioritize the needs of the people over the profits of the elite. We need to end preparations for a war on China and the propaganda campaigns that justify it. Most importantly, we need the United States, China, and the rest of the world to work together to end global inequality and ensure a just and sustainable future for all. If this does not happen, we will all face the consequences.

Over the past month, Chinese social media platforms like Xiaohongshu and Bilibili have begun dismantling the myth of the “American dream,” replacing glossy imagery with firsthand accounts showing that life in the so-called “land of the free” is far from bright and picturesque. In its place, a new concept has emerged, borrowed from video games, when a character’s health drops so low that a single hit can end everything. It’s called the “kill line,” and the term has rapidly entered mainstream political discussion in China.

The “kill line” describes the fragile margin of survival in the lives of many Americans, where one medical emergency, job loss, or unexpected expense can push a person into homelessness or permanent poverty. This precarious balance is a constant threat embedded in the structure of a society that prioritizes profit over people. One mistake, one illness, or one stroke of bad luck can place someone’s entire life in jeopardy.

Cybernetics with Chinese Characteristics: How big data is eliminating poverty and building socialism

We are pleased to republish below an article by Taylor Dorrell on China’s use of big data and other digital technologies to tackle poverty and improve livelihoods.

Describing the unprecedented successes of China’s Targeted Poverty Alleviation (TPA) program, Taylor notes that the immense human effort associated with the program (involving the deployment of several million cadres to work in impoverished areas and collect raw data on household poverty) has been greatly facilitated by the use of digital technologies. For example, at the Information Center of the State Council Office of Poverty Alleviation, “billions of pieces of data are mobilised like ammunition to wage a decentralised war against poverty”. Meanwhile:

In the province of Guizhou, the government established the “Guizhou Poverty Alleviation Cloud” information system, which connected data from different government departments, sharing housing, education, and medical care data with industrial departments and data from poor households. Guizhou Renhe Zhiyuan Data Service Co., Ltd. collected data from over 20,000 villages to create a customized training program for workers based on skills and employment. It’s just a small example of how cybernetics has been used to address poverty.

Taylor joins the historical dots from the Soviet Union’s early experiments with cybernetics (to improve economic planning), through to the Allende government’s Cybersyn project in Chile, and on to China’s contemporary use of big data to eliminate poverty.

Using big data and modelling, China has been able to track and eradicate absolute poverty, a feat never taken on, not to mention achieved, by any country in history.

This article originally appeared on People’s World.

In China’s countryside, it is common to find elderly farmers moving from their ancient homes to new developments sprouting up across the land. Houses discovered to be in the path of disasters like floods and landslides, or houses that are simply too old, are being left for new condos closer to industrial or post-industrial jobs.

When Peng Lanhua’s 200-year-old home was designated unsafe to live in by the government, she turned down the opportunity to move to a new community an hour away, and instead, despite her age, or perhaps because of it (she’s approaching 90 and has seen China transformed from being a feudal state occupied by Japan to becoming an economic superpower), she chose to stay in the dilapidated structure.

Were Peng born in a crumbling shack in West Virginia, she might find herself with few prospects. Living with Alzheimer’s on a modest pension and low-income insurance, there would be little hope of fixing up her home, securing basic amenities, and improving her material conditions in her final years.

There is no government or party cadre visiting every trailer home in West Virginia villages to learn how the state and private markets can be mobilized to secure a minimum standard of living. There is no team following up to verify the conditions and see who has been raised out of poverty. However, Peng doesn’t live in Appalachia, but rather a remote village in Guizhou Province, a place that has been a part of China’s poverty alleviation program and was the subject of a recent study carried out by the international left-wing institute, Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research.

In 2013, China began the “targeted” phase of its long-running poverty alleviation program. Spending $246 billion to build almost 700,000 miles of rural roads, bringing internet to 98% of the country’s poor villages, renovating homes for more than 26 million people, and building new homes for almost 10 million people, China’s Targeted Poverty Alleviation (TPA) program is not tailored solely towards satisfying strict income requirements and quantitative improvements.

Following the slogan “one income, two assurances, and three guarantees,” the program addresses what’s called Multidimensional Poverty. “One income” refers to raising the daily income above the UN poverty line of $1.90; “two assurances” refers to food and clothing; and “three guarantees” is in reference to access to basic medical services, safe housing with clean drinking water and electricity, and free education.

China’s movement to end poverty

We are pleased to reproduce this detailed and useful analysis by the US-based University of the Poor of China’s long war on poverty.

The article makes the important point that poverty alleviation did not start with the targeted program from 2013 onwards, but is in fact core to the whole Chinese revolutionary project, starting with the liberated territories in the 1930s and 40s, continuing with socialist construction in the 1950s and 60s, and expanding again with the Reform and Opening Up process from 1978.

The targeted program, initiated by Xi Jinping in 2013, “set and achieved the goal of lifting all 98.99 million out of poverty before the end of 2020.” This was achieved through the most incredible mobilisation: “approximately 10 million cadres participated for periods of one to three years, often living in very harsh conditions”. In addition to ensuring a minimum income, the program made sure that people had secure access to food, clothing, safe housing, clean water, electricity, and health and education services.

To guarantee this baseline living standard in a developing country of 1.4 billion people is an astonishing achievement, made possible to a large degree by China’s political system – in particular the leadership of the CPC – which “enables the state apparatus to be wielded for strategic organizing campaigns like the campaign to eradicate extreme poverty and also the current Common Prosperity campaign”. It’s a state apparatus “that can meet the needs of a huge diversity of people, with a particular focus on the poor”.

The article also includes an interesting section on housing, comparing the policies of the US and Chinese governments. “In 2008, the US government responded to the housing crisis largely by bailing out the large banks that had created the problem.” Meanwhile in China, “the government has intervened in the housing market to curb speculation, moderate growth, and avoid a housing crash”.

During his 2017 CPC National Congress address, Xi Jinping declared, “Housing is for living in, not for speculation.” This principle has been the guide for PRC policy which has since served to rein in speculation and investor profiteering in the housing sector, which is fundamentally for providing housing.

The authors make clear that the working class and progressive forces in the US should under no circumstances support the US ruling class’s escalating New Cold War on China. After all, this is the same US ruling class “whose violence and threat of violence is our fundamental obstacle in our pursuit of power for poor people”. Ultimately, “the scapegoating and propaganda on China from our ruling class is a clear divide and conquer strategy for keeping the global poor and dispossessed disorganized”.

Rather than participating in an attack on China, or swallowing anti-China propaganda, “our movement to end poverty in the US can draw inspiration and many lessons from this campaign in China.”

As we build the movement to end poverty in the United States, this example in China can help to illustrate what is concretely possible when state power is taken, held and wielded by the poor and dispossessed. This campaign that centered the revolutionary social force was both made possible and developed by party cadre 100 years after the founding of the CPC. The power of this example and the other policies focused on the poor of China also shed light on what is at stake for the ruling class in the US State’s “strategic competition” with China. We anticipate redbaiting and misinformation around China will escalate as our crises deepen in the US, so our cadre must understand anti-China propaganda as a “divide and conquer” tactic of our ruling class.

Introduction

The UPoor Think Tank’s China Task Force was established to study the Chinese revolutionary process to identify lessons for our struggle. Many things about the Chinese situation are extremely different from our context in the US, but we can draw lessons from their cadres’ use of strategy and tactics. China’s revolutionary process is at a very different stage from our own, and it started from a very different material situation than what we are experiencing in the United States. At the same time, the Chinese Communist Party (CPC) is in escalating conflict with the same US State, which is the primary state power wielded in service of the global capitalist class. This is also the same US State whose violence and threat of violence is our fundamental obstacle in our pursuit of power for poor people.

The Reform and Opening Period initiated by Deng Xiaoping in 1978 focused on using foreign direct investment to develop the forces of production in China. This helped to grow and develop the Chinese economy and raised 770 million rural residents out of extreme poverty. This also increased income and wealth inequality in China. When Xi Jinping, the current general secretary of the CPC and President of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) came into office in 2012, there were still 98.99 million people living in absolute poverty in China, out of a total population of about 1.4 billion. These were commonly in isolated and undeveloped rural areas and regions that faced the most extreme challenges. This population was the focus of the successful Extreme Poverty alleviation project, which set and achieved the goal of lifting all 98.99 million out of poverty before the end of 2020.

This article will focus on the recent work of the CPC to continue the revolutionary process in China, especially during Xi’s tenure since 2012. We see the Campaign to Eradicate Extreme Poverty as having multiple goals, including the strategic development of party cadre with the clarity, connectedness, commitment, and competence to continue their revolutionary process forward across generations and also to continually develop a state apparatus that can meet the needs of a huge diversity of people, with a particular focus on the poor. There are many lessons we can draw from this campaign in both of these areas, which we identify as areas for future study.

Example of the Chinese and US State’s relationship with the Poor

There is a notable and rare consensus of the Democratic and Republican parties of the United States that China is a threat. Both parties see it as a source, albeit in different forms, of diverting attention away or at times scapegoating domestic issues to ‘foreign enemies.’ In the U.S. our culture of pragmatism prevents us from seeing this integral relationship between domestic and foreign policy ‘issues,’ and is made to believe they are separate when in fact it is the very same U.S. state purporting and implementing these policies with overlapping goals. The scapegoating and propaganda on China from our ruling class is a clear divide and conquer strategy for keeping the global poor and dispossessed disorganized. The specific points of criticism made on China, especially on domestic issues impacting the poor, parallels points of weakness for our ruling class.

Solar power farms on plateau fuel China’s green energy revolution

The article below, republished from Xinhua, describes a remarkable story of ‘ecological civilisation’ in action, combining holistic ecological protection with poverty alleviation efforts.

Hainan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, in China’s western Qinghai province, is host to the world’s largest solar photovoltaic power plant, with a generation capacity of 8.4 GW (which would be sufficient to provide energy to the whole of London). Nearly 3,000 meters above sea level, and exposed to extreme levels of solar radiation, it is an area that has experienced significant desertification in recent decades: “By the end of the last century, the desertification rate of the land was as high as 98.5 percent, making the solar panels installed here vulnerable to damage from the sand and gravel stirred up by strong gusts of wind.”

More recently, because photovoltaic panels reduce wind erosion on vegetation, grass has been thriving. Meanwhile, in order to maintain the grass and to prevent the proliferation of weeds, sheep have been introduced to the solar park. This has given a major boost to livestock cultivation in the region, with people in the surrounding villages now raising “photovoltaic sheep”.

The plant is thus “simultaneously generating electricity while making exemplary contributions to poverty alleviation and ecological conservation efforts.”

Amid China’s green energy revolution, the world’s largest solar photovoltaic power plant on the Qinghai-Xizang Plateau is forging a unique development path, simultaneously generating electricity while making exemplary contributions to poverty alleviation and ecological conservation efforts.

In late May, greenness finally emerged in the yellow-gray expanse of the Talatan Gobi Desert in Gonghe County, part of the Hainan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture in northwest China’s Qinghai Province.

Yehdor, a 48-year-old herder from Xaghelesi Village in Tiegai Township, leisurely rode his motorcycle, driving his flock of sheep into the solar photovoltaic power plant owned by Huanghe Hydropower Development Co., Ltd.

Yehdor is no stranger to solar photovoltaic panels, or what he calls “blue mirrors.” In 2006, he received two of these panels through a government project promoting solar power among locals. Since then, the panels have become part of his essential gear, accompanying his tent and other necessities during his six-month-long shepherding journeys each year.

“I set up the panels outside my tent, and they charged during the day, generating enough electricity to power lights and other small appliances throughout the night,” he said.

“However, they are nothing compared to these,” Yehdor added, pointing to the solar panels arranged in a matrix across 4,000 acres of desert land, sparkling like a silver-blue sea under the sun.

More than 200 sheep, a mix of black and white, were spotted roaming among the panels. As startling as it may sound, these sheep have been tasked with protecting the blue panels. Their voracious appetite, once a headache for environmentalists, has now become essential for maintaining the smooth operation of the solar power station.

In 2012, the prefecture initiated the construction of China’s first 10 million kilowatt-class solar power base in Talatan. Today, covering an area of 609 square kilometers, this solar power base boasts a power generation capacity of 8,430 megawatts, making it the largest in the world, according to Qeyang, deputy director of the administration committee of the Hainan prefectural green energy industry park.

It hosts 91 energy enterprises, which include 63 solar photovoltaic power enterprises and 28 wind power enterprises. “Green energy is the signature industry of Hainan prefecture and our annual output accounts for 54.08 percent of the total energy generated in Qinghai,” Qeyang said.

At a deliberation with the lawmakers from Qinghai during the annual session of the National People’s Congress in March 2021, Chinese President Xi Jinping gave instructions to build Qinghai into a highland of clean energies, a destination of international eco-tourism and a source of green and organic farm and livestock products, stressing efforts on fostering a green, low-carbon and circular economic system.

The Qinghai provincial government, since then, has accelerated its efforts to pursue high-quality development of the green energy industry based on local conditions.

Currently, the total installed power generation capacity in Qinghai is 54,970,800 kilowatts, with clean energy accounting for 51,079,400 kilowatts, or 93 percent, of the total. Talatan is also witnessing drastic changes.

Located about 150 kilometers from Qinghai’s provincial capital, Xining, Talatan sits nearly 3,000 meters above sea level and is bombarded with intense solar radiation, which hinders plant growth. By the end of the last century, the desertification rate of the land was as high as 98.5 percent, making the solar panels installed here vulnerable to damage from the sand and gravel stirred up by strong gusts of wind.

Pro-poor development – how China eradicated poverty

This article by Li Xiaoyun, Chair Professor of Humanities at the China Agricultural University and a widely-respected expert in the field of poverty alleviation, makes a number of important and thought-provoking points about China’s successes in eradicating poverty.

Li makes the oft-overlooked point that China’s poverty alleviation efforts have been a long-term process starting not with the initiation of Reform and Opening Up in the late 1970s but with the land reform and social welfare measures of the 1950s. This is consistent with research showing that, around the world, “redistributive land reform, starting with breaking up land concentration and land monopolies, maximises economic efficiency and social justice and helps to alleviate rural poverty.”

By 1978, famine had been eradicated, feudal land ownership systems had been dismantled, and education and healthcare services were available throughout the country. This progress “provided an important basis for the high economic growth and massive poverty reduction that followed the reform and opening up.” Further, “the 1978 reform and opening-up policy effectively utilised the material and human resource base laid down in the area of agricultural development prior to 1978 and became the second interface of China’s poverty reduction mechanism.”

Rapid economic growth in the reform period, starting with the household responsibility system in the countryside, has been a crucial driver of poverty reduction in China. But Li also emphasises the importance of the government’s active role in this process, including through the provision of basic public services, the development of infrastructure, and the implementation of targeted poverty alleviation measures. He further notes that many countries of the Global South have experienced relatively high GDP growth but have not enjoyed similar levels of poverty reduction. This indicates that GDP growth alone does little to improve the lives of the poor, and that governments must devote substantial focus and resources to this project.

The author writes that although inequality has risen rapidly over the last four decades, the government has taken active and decisive measures to ensure that the benefits of economic growth are shared by all. “In order to address the issue of inequality, in 1986, the Chinese government formally established a leading agency for rural poverty alleviation at both the central level and at the local level. At the same time, special funds for poverty alleviation were set aside at the central financial level to designate poverty-stricken areas, thus beginning a targeted and planned rural poverty alleviation and development strategy.”

Tackling rural poverty has been a particular focus over the last two decades, starting with the complete abolition of agricultural taxes in 2006, the implementation of rural low income insurance in 2004 and the realisation of medical care coverage for all rural residents by 2010. With the start of the targeted poverty alleviation campaign in 2014, “resources are pooled through extraordinary administrative initiatives, concentrating human, material and financial resources on the poorest areas and neediest groups.”

Li observes that China’s urbanisation has also made an important contribution to poverty reduction – “the movement of the rural population into industry and cities means an increase in income and welfare, and thus industrialisation and urbanisation have a direct poverty-reducing effect.” Meanwhile “the significant decline in the rural population has also meant a relative increase in the labour productivity of those who remained in the countryside and continue to work in agriculture.” It’s worth noting that in several other countries, rapid urbanisation has taken place in a relatively disorganised manner, with peasants escaping a life of grinding poverty and debt in the countryside, only to end up in peri-urban slums without secure employment or access to services. China’s urbanisation, while not without challenges and problems, has been generally well-managed.

The article concludes with a hugely important point about the indispensable role of the Communist Party of China in the fight against poverty:

The main reason why China was able to finally eradicate absolute rural poverty was because the CPC relied on its political advantage of unifying society and strongly integrated its political commitment to poverty reduction across all sectors of government and society, breaking the constraints of interest groups and administrative bureaucracy and achieving a redistribution of wealth and opportunities.

Which is to say that a socialist system provides the best possible framework for improving people’s lives.

This article first appeared on Progressive International.

On 25 February 2021, Chinese President Xi Jinping officially declared in Beijing that China will finally eliminate absolute rural poverty. As the standard for absolute rural poverty in China is higher than the World Bank’s standard for extreme poverty,2 China lags behind the World Bank’s estimates for eliminating absolute rural poverty. According to the World Bank’s poverty line of US$1.9 per person per day, there were 878 million poor people in China in 1981, and the incidence of poverty was 88.3%. By 2015, that number had fallen to 9.7 million, with an incidence of 0.7%.3

Economic growth and income redistribution are generally accepted as two important drivers of poverty reduction. Based on the situation in the United States, in 1964 Anderson suggested that economic growth was an important contributor to poverty reduction in the country.4 However, the experience of developing countries has been different. States in sub-Saharan Africa, for example, have, to varying degrees, seen relatively high levels of economic growth over the past two decades, but they have not achieved significant poverty reduction. This shows that economic growth is only one factor in poverty reduction. For poverty reduction to succeed, economic growth must also be set to address poverty alleviation.5 Secondly, the rise in income inequality accompanying economic growth is a major problem for developing countries and many middle-income countries. The rise in inequality directly worsens relative poverty, a process that China began to experience at the turn of the century. In the context of poverty reduction, China’s primary challenge before the new century was to put economic growth in the service of the poor. Since then, inequality became increasingly pronounced. These two features have greatly influenced changes in China’s poverty reduction strategies and policies.

Views on poverty reduction in China tend to fall into two categories. One sees China’s development and poverty reduction as part of a universal trend of socio-economic transformation that followed as a result of China’s assimilation into globalisation. The other sees China’s achievement of development and poverty reduction as a particular case, with its own unique Chinese characteristics.6 This paper will mainly introduce and analyse the process of poverty reduction in China from three aspects – the historical role of development in poverty reduction before 1978, economic growth in service of poverty alleviation after 1978, and the goal of poverty eradication in the face of increasing inequality – at the same time considering its core elements and their global significance.

China, CELAC to deepen cooperation on poverty reduction in fresh sign of growing ties

China and the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean have agreed to cooperate more closely in poverty reduction, especially through post-pandemic economic recovery, infrastructure construction and digital technology, following the second Forum on Poverty Reduction and Development between China and CELAC (Community of Latin American and Caribbean States), held virtually last week.

CELAC officials and experts “praised China’s efforts to eradicate absolute poverty, especially through rural-urban integration and digital technology support, which are seen as valuable for Latin American countries to alleviate poverty.”

Stressing the urgency of the tasks in hand, an Argentinian delegate noted that: “The epidemic has exacerbated social inequality and brought a devastating impact on the most vulnerable. We need to find solutions through bilateral and multilateral cooperation.”

Two days before the meeting, Nicaragua’s Trade and Industry minister announced that his government was expediting the conclusion of a Free Trade Agreement with China.

The following report is reprinted from Global Times.

China and Latin American and Caribbean countries have agreed on deeper cooperation in poverty reduction, with joint efforts in areas such as post-pandemic economic recovery, infrastructure construction and digital technology, officials and experts said at the second Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC)-China Forum on Poverty Reduction and Development, held virtually on Wednesday.

At the forum, officials and experts from CELAC also praised China’s efforts to eradicate absolute poverty, especially through rural-urban integration and digital technology support, which are seen as valuable for Latin American countries to alleviate poverty and promote the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

China’s long war on poverty

This article by Friends of Socialist China co-editor Carlos Martinez provides a detailed analysis of China’s ongoing war against poverty. In addition to discussing the recently-concluded targeted poverty alleviation program, in which the government achieved its goal of ending extreme poverty, Carlos discusses the anti-poverty measures taken during the various phases of the Chinese Revolution, including land reform in the liberated areas in the 1930s and 40s; the period of initial socialist construction from 1949; Reform and Opening Up from 1978; and the more recent measures aimed at building common prosperity. He concludes that poverty alleviation, and more broadly the improvement of people’s living standards, is foundational to the entire Chinese socialist project and constitutes a key theme of each of its stages.

In late 2020, the Chinese government announced that its goal of eliminating extreme poverty by 2021 (the centenary of the founding of the Communist Party of China) had been met. At the start of the targeted poverty alleviation program in 2014, just under 100 million people were identified as living below the poverty line; seven years later, the number was zero.

To eradicate extreme poverty in a developing country of 1.4 billion people – which at the time of the founding of the People’s Republic of China in 1949 was one of the poorest countries in the world, characterised by widespread malnutrition, illiteracy, foreign domination and technological backwardness – is without doubt “the greatest anti-poverty achievement in history”, in the words of UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres.¹

What does it mean to not suffer extreme poverty in China? The most easily measurable aspect is having a daily income higher than the World Bank-defined international poverty line of 1.90 USD per day. But according to the Chinese government’s definition, a person can be considered to have left extreme poverty only if the “two assurances and three guarantees” have been met.² The two assurances are for adequate food and clothing; the three guarantees are for access to medical services, safe housing with drinking water and electricity, and at least nine years of free education. Meanwhile, the land ownership system in China means that the rural poor have rent-free access to land and housing – putting them in a very different category to the rural poor elsewhere in the world.

On the continuous development of human rights in China

Friends of Socialist China co-editor Carlos Martinez was recently interviewed on the subject of democracy and human rights for the Chinese edition of People’s Daily. We publish below the English translation.

“The Chinese government listens to the voices of the people, is committed to meeting the needs of the people, and promotes the continuous development of the cause of human rights.” Recently, British writer and political commentator Carlos Martinez said in an interview with this reporter that the Chinese Communist Party leads the Chinese people. Unprecedented progress has been made in finding a human rights development path that suits the national conditions of the country. What is important is that China breaks the narrow definition of human rights in the West, “China’s human rights protection is extensive and sufficient”.

Martinez was deeply impressed by the whole process of people’s democracy in China. He said that this concept highlights the essential difference between socialist democracy with Chinese characteristics and Western capitalist democracy. The Chinese side believes that if the people are awakened only when they vote, and then go into a hibernation period, they only listen to hype slogans during elections, they have no right to speak after the election, they are favored during canvassing, and they are left out after the election. Such a democracy is not true democracy. Martinez agrees.

“The participation of ordinary Chinese people in running society is higher than that of Western countries. In terms of representing the basic interests of ordinary people, the Chinese government has done a far better job than Western governments.” Martinez said that in the whole process of China’s development of people’s democracy, the people have always enjoyed democratic rights, not limited to elections; available to all social classes, not limited to certain groups. China’s democratic system has its own historical background. It can ensure the enjoyment of democratic rights by the broadest masses of people and provide important support and guarantee for social governance.

Martinez said that China’s achievements lie not only in achieving rapid economic growth, but also in the government’s wholehearted commitment to improving the living standards of ordinary people. The Chinese government pays attention to poverty eradication, environmental protection, education development, etc., to improve people’s lives in general. “People’s demands are reflected in the government’s work, which is the real people’s democracy.” Martinez said.

“Eliminating absolute poverty in a developing country with a population of more than 1.4 billion is an extraordinary achievement and has historical significance.” Martinez specifically mentioned that due to the impact of the new coronavirus epidemic and geopolitical factors, poverty is rising. The Chinese government has historically solved the problem of absolute poverty and made important contributions to human development and progress. He said that while carrying out targeted poverty alleviation, China has actively shared its experience with other countries and regions, participated in many poverty alleviation projects in Africa, and carried out various cooperation with developing countries, which has promoted the sustainable development of these countries and regions.

How China strengthened food security and fought poverty with state-funded cooperatives

We are republishing this important and informative article by Joe Scholten, originally published on the Multipolarista website.

Joe explains that, due to a number of factors, the world is facing a chronic rise in food prices and mounting fear of famine. However, “Beijing has shown how to strengthen food sovereignty, and simultaneously fight poverty with a multi-pronged approach that combines state-funded agricultural cooperatives, stockpiling of nonperishable staples, a crackdown on waste, and government investment in new technologies.”

China’s agriculture, he notes, “is still significantly organized on the basis of cooperative farming. Nearly half of farms are agricultural cooperatives.” Between 2013-2019, the Chinese government rebuilt more than 10,000 primary supply and marketing cooperatives. By 2019 they were present in 95% of the country’s towns – up from just 50% in 2013. This policy, he argues, was crucial to the success of the anti-poverty campaign, as were such key elements of China’s socialist construction as state ownership of land and five-year plans.

Other features of the Chinese experience cited in the article include the system of ‘Two Assurances and Three Guarantees’, ensuring adequate food reserves, the introduction of penalties for commercial food waste, the development of such innovative technologies as salt water-tolerant rice crops, and further strengthening the rights and interests of the working class by, for example, extending unionisation to new sectors of the economy, such as delivery workers for popular apps.

The Covid-19 pandemic, the ensuing supply-chain crisis, and high rates of inflation around the world have led to rising food prices and fears of famine.

These cascading and interlocking problems have pushed governments to prioritize economic self-sufficiency and food security.

China is leading the way in this struggle. Beijing has shown how to strengthen food sovereignty, and simultaneously fight poverty, with a multi-pronged approach that combines state-funded agricultural cooperatives, stockpiling of nonperishable staples, a crackdown on waste, and government investment in new technologies.

While the United Nations warns of “the specter of a global food shortage,” the Chinese government has provided countries with an alternative model to meet the needs of their people.

Poor People’s Campaign and China’s anti-poverty program

We are pleased to reproduce this article by Sharon Black, originally carried by Struggle/La Lucha in the United States. Sharon begins with moving personal recollections of her participation, as an 18-year-old working-class woman, in the Poor People’s Campaign initiated by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in May 1968, and goes on to outline the very different approaches to poverty by the US and China. Having outlined the steadily worsening situation in the US, she states: “All this contrasts with the Communist Party of China (CPC) and the Chinese government, which made eradicating poverty one of its major goals.”

According to Sharon, China’s historic eradication of extreme poverty is not solely due to China’s economic growth, as important as this has been. However: “Without a conscious effort by the Chinese government, economic growth in [and] of itself would not have solved the problem.”

Having outlined the concrete steps taken by China, including young urban students and professional workers giving up relatively comfortable lives to go and participate in the anti-poverty campaign in rural villages, Sharon likens this to Cuba’s literacy campaign. Of course, comparisons could also be made with the millions of Chinese youths, including future President Xi Jinping, who went down to the countryside in the 1960s and 1970s.

Sharon concludes: “What cannot be argued is that socialist China is going in the opposite direction of the capitalist West… Our challenge is to learn from what China has done.”

On May 12, 1968, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s Poor People’s Campaign officially began with a Mother’s Day march led by Coretta Scott King and welfare mothers.

I was barely 18 years old. Pregnant with my son and filled with the kind of hope that only the young possess — who know little of the hardships ahead — I participated in the Poor People’s Campaign.

My neighbors were from Appalachia; my mother from the coal mining area of eastern Pennsylvania. As much as I was motivated by empathy for the people I loved who were my family and neighbors, it was the civil rights movement that lit a fire inside of me.

So when I saw a flier posted by a group of Vista workers soliciting people to go with them to the D.C. Poor People’s Campaign, I called immediately.

I lied to my parents and pretended to stay with a friend, then left for Washington with a small group of older, certainly more sophisticated, participants. Most of them were graduates from the University of Delaware.

I was the youngest, the only woman at the time. I was awkward; I couldn’t accompany them to bars because of my age, had no money and had never eaten in a restaurant.

New Year address by President Xi Jinping

We reprint here President Xi Jinping’s New Year Address for 2022 delivered from Beijing on New Year’s Eve. In direct and vivid language, the Chinese President succinctly covers a broad canvas ranging from nature to sports to space exploration. He reflects on the great achievements of an extraordinary year that saw the centenary of the founding of the Communist Party of China and the adoption of a major resolution on party history:

Standing on the Tian’anmen Rostrum, one could only marvel at the extraordinary journey traveled by this major Party, a journey of Chinese Communists leading the Chinese people, in their hundreds of millions, in an unyielding struggle against all obstacles and challenges, and scoring spectacular, epoch-making achievements over the past century.

China’s historic victory over extreme poverty was naturally another major theme. As a seasoned Marxist, in his Address, Comrade Xi integrated the general with the particular on the basis of the mass line:

The myriad of things we attend to all boil down to matters concerning every household… The concerns of the people are what I always care about, and the aspirations of the people are what I always strive for.

Reviewing his country’s signal contribution to the global battle against Covid-19, the Chinese President noted:

Only through unity, solidarity and cooperation can countries around the world write a new chapter in building a community with a shared future for mankind.

Embedded below the text is CGTN’s video version of the speech, with English subtitles.

My greetings to you all. The year 2022 is approaching. From Beijing, I extend New Year wishes to all of you!

The past year has been a year of exceptional significance. We have lived through landmark events in the history of our Party and our country. At the historical convergence of the Two Centenary Goals, we have set out on a new journey of building a modern socialist country in all respects and are making confident strides on the path toward the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.

China’s war on poverty

We are very pleased to publish this original article by Stefania Fusero, analysing the extraordinary successes of China’s targeted poverty alleviation program. The Italian version of the article will be published in two parts in La Città Futura.

In May 2020, PBS, a US public broadcaster, aired “China’s War on Poverty”, a documentary film co-produced with CGTN (Chinese State Television). A few days later, Daily Caller, a right-wing news website, accused the documentary of being “pro-Beijing”. After Fox News followed suit, PBS removed the film from its network.

According to Robert L. Kuhn, the producer of the film, the eradication of poverty in China ought to be understood by everybody, owing to the relevance it bears for the entire planet.

It is undoubtedly the story of a huge success of China’s, therefore it is no surprise that the western media and political establishment does not want it to be known and autonomously evaluated across our “free” world, whose citizens are kept carefully sheltered from any positive news about China.

The film can still be watched on CGTN YouTube channel at this link.

Here we will try to illustrate how the PRC managed to eradicate extreme poverty ten years ahead of the schedule set out in the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

In 2000, all UN member states committed to achieve eight development goals by the year 2015, the so-called Millennium Development Goals, the first of which was to halve the number of people living in poverty. Whereas China managed to achieve the goal by 2015, other countries did not. Thus in 2015 the commitments were reaffirmed in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, a plan of action for people, planet and prosperity announcing seventeen Sustainable Development Goals to be achieved by 2030, the first and foremost of which was “to end poverty”.

Lee Camp interviews Li Jingjing on Western misconceptions about China

Comedian and activist Lee Camp interviewed CGTN journalist and vlogger Li Jingjing on his program Redacted Tonight about common Western misconceptions about China. Highlighted in the interview is the importance of Chinese voices in countering the propaganda war and how these voices have been silenced and ignored by Western media.

Webinar: From hunger and famine to feeding everyone (26 September)

On Sunday, 26 September 2021, the CPUSA is hosting a webinar on China’s elimination of extreme poverty.

Date: Saturday 26 September 2021
Time: 8pm US Eastern, 7pm US Central, 5pm US Pacific
Registration: Zoom

In 2021 China announced the elimination of extreme poverty, a historic accomplishment of socialism. Speakers from China and the USA will discuss the conditions of old China before the victory of the revolution in 1949: destitution, illiteracy and violence, as well as imperialist invasion and occupation. This will be followed by a discussion of today’s successful poverty alleviation program and the role of the Chinese Communist Party. The class will end with Q&A and discussion.

Speakers will include: Shen Ning (North American Bureau of Communist Party of China International Department), Norman Markowitz (Rutgers University); and Luo Xiaoping (sociologist from North China Electrical Power University).

Review: Serve the People – The Eradication of Extreme Poverty in China

This article by Carlos Martinez was originally published – in slightly condensed form – in Beijing Review on 10 September 2021.

In late 2020, the Chinese government announced that its goal to eliminate extreme poverty by 2021 (the centenary of the founding of the Communist Party of China) had been met. At the start of the targeted poverty alleviation programme in 2013, just under 100 million people were identified as living below the poverty line; seven years later, the number was zero.

To eradicate extreme poverty in a developing country of 1.4 billion people, which just 72 years ago (at the time of the founding of the People’s Republic of China) was one of the poorest countries in the world – characterised by widespread malnutrition, illiteracy, foreign domination and technological backwardness – is a truly extraordinary achievement.

China contributes to Mozambique’s rice revolution

This informative video from CGTN gives an overview of the contribution China is making towards development and poverty alleviation in Mozambique, specifically in relation to rice production, in which area China is sharing its advanced technology and extensive experience.

Report: analysts from around the world explore and celebrate China’s poverty alleviation successes

On Saturday 26 June, Friends of Socialist China held its first webinar: China’s Path to Zero Poverty, supported by the Geopolitical Economic Research Group. This event brought together a diverse range of speakers with different perspectives on China’s successes in eradicating poverty. The entire webinar (along with the individual speech videos) can be watched on our YouTube channel. Below we provide a summary of the proceedings.

Introducing the event, Radhika Desai (Professor of Political Studies, University of Manitoba, Director, Geopolitical Economy Research Group) commended the extraordinary effort on the part of the Communist Party of China to eradicate extreme poverty. “It’s been a hard slog, as old as the revolution itself.”

Radhika noted that land reform, carried out in the liberated territories in the 1930s and 1940s and then extended throughout the country following the proclamation of the People’s Republic of China in 1949, was the first step along the road to eradicating poverty, and provided the firm foundation for transforming what was then one of the poorest countries in the world.

Speaking of the targeted anti-poverty campaign of the last few years, Radhika pointed out that the threshold for lifting people out of poverty was not exclusively based on the World Bank daily income figure. This income figure is accompanied by ‘Two Assurances and Three Guarantees’: assuring that people have sufficient access to food and clothing, and providing guaranteed access to compulsory education (nine years), basic medical services and safe housing.

Reminder: China’s Path to Zero Poverty (Saturday 26 June)

A reminder that our first webinar takes place on Saturday 26 June, 9am US Eastern / 2pm Britain / 9pm China.

You can register for the Zoom event on Eventbrite.

Details

On 1 July 2021, the Communist Party of China celebrates the 100th anniversary of its founding. Of all the CPC has accomplished in that period, the elimination of extreme poverty is unquestionably among its most impressive and historically significant achievements.

In this webinar, academics, politicians, journalists and campaigners from around the world will explore how China has been able to carry out the most extensive poverty alleviation program in history, and what lessons there are for humanity.

Speakers

Senator Mushahid Hussain (Chairman, Senate Foreign Affairs Committee and Pakistan-China Institute, Pakistan)
Li Jingjing (Reporter for CGTN, China)
Utsa Patnaik (Marxist economist, India)
Ovigwe Eguegu (Columnist for the China Africa Project, Nigeria)
Camila Escalante (Broadcast journalist, producer, presenter for Kawsachun News, Bolivia)
Roland Boer (Professor of Marxist philosophy in the School of Marxism at Dalian University of Technology, China)
Mick Dunford (Emeritus Professor, University of Sussex, Visiting Professor, Chinese Academy of Sciences)
John Ross (Senior Fellow at Chongyang Institute for Financial Studies, Renmin University of China)
Qiao Collective (Collective of diaspora Chinese challenging US aggression on China)
Tings Chak (Lead Designer/Researcher at Tricontinental Institute and Dongsheng News)
Chair: Radhika Desai (Professor of Political Studies, University of Manitoba, Director, Geopolitical Economy Research Group)

About the organisers

Friends of Socialist China is a new platform based on supporting the People’s Republic of China and promoting understanding of Chinese socialism. Its website (edited by Danny Haiphong, Keith Bennett and Carlos Martinez) aims to consolidate the best articles and videos related to China and Chinese socialism, along with original analysis.

The Geopolitical Economy Research Group is a policy institute based at the University of Manitoba and run by Radhika Desai and Alan Freeman. It analyses and proposes policy alternatives for managing the interaction of national economies and states to promote human development and mutual benefit in today’s multipolar world.

Category: Poverty alleviation