…every Chinese citizen is living above the US$2 poverty datum line, thanks to the determined efforts of the Chinese government through the Communist Party of China, the fulcrum of Chinese economic development with pure Chinese characteristics
BY WALLEN SIMWAKA
CHINA is the first country in the world to have eradicated absolute poverty, having lifted more than 800 million of its poor citizens out of abject poverty, thanks to more than four decades of hard work, determination, dedication and diligence of its leadership through the Communist Party of China (CPC), the country’s torch bearer to governance and economic emancipation.
By the year 1978, China’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) was just about US$158, equivalent to that of Zambia at the time and was known as bicycle country, for it was the most effective mode of transportation. Its GDP has now blossomed to US$10, 000, with a healthy economy.
China’s motor vehicle population has grown so much, with Beijing, with just over a population of 20 million accounting for seven million automobiles such that for one to buy a car, you first have to secure a number plate.
While Sub-Sahara at the time only had about 44 per- cent of its population living below the poverty datum line, China had about 80 percent of its citizens living in abject poverty, making the country much poorer than many African countries.
With about 100 million Chinese living in extreme poverty by 2012, President Xi Jinping declared that among many other challenges, poverty was one of the three tough battles that had to be won, apart from reducing environmental pollution and risks.
Today, China, a developing country is a bustling second largest economy in the world, having transitioned from being one of the poorest in the world to the second largest global economy after it lifted more people out of poverty than any other country in the world.
But how did China achieve this Herculean feat of eradicating absolute poverty in just about four decades?
China’s road to anti-poverty crusade has never been an easy one, having gone through many historical tribulations, including colonisation and fighting wars of invasion through its dynasties.
Towards the end of the month of April to mid-May, the Ministry of Commerce of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) organised a three-week seminar for journalists from English-speaking countries which was hosted by China International Communication Group (CICG), a professional, comprehensive international
communication institution. “China and Africa have a shared future despite being separated by vast oceans. But neither oceans nor distance have stopped China and Africa from cooperating because their hearts have from time immemorial have remained connected.
China and Africa have enhanced their cooperation of mutual benefits and the window for better understanding of each other getting wider. It is said that if you want to fast, go alone, but if you want to go far, we go together,” Sun Liagying, the assistant researcher at the Institute of World Economics and Politics at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences said.
Professor He Wenping of the Institute West Asian and African Studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences during her lecture explained that the Chinese leadership formulated policies meant to make massive investments in rural areas where poverty was high.
The investment led to the modernisation of rural areas and this was only possible through the relocation of peasant farmers into areas that were developed.
“China’s national rejuvenation has been achieved through its independent conditions. China has since designated the year 2026 as the China-Africa year of the people-to-people development agenda.
China-Africa cooperation is a global agenda of South-South cooperation. The Forum on China-Africa Cooperation has been an instrument of building stronger, mutual and respect multilateral relationship be- tween China and Africa for the prosperity of the two peoples,” Prof He said.
In its 2015 report, the United Nations Millennium Development Goals, said the goal to reduce poverty by half of that year was because of the exceptional and powerful performance of the China’s economy.
The philosophy and mantra of collective good over person- al life has been the fulcrum by which China has surpassed in growing its economy and con- signing poverty to history.
Working to create inter- generational legacy, China has embraced innovation over traditional thinking and through perseverance, forward thinking and planning as well as adaptive thinking.
It has a development strategy that is pure and free from any external influence, a strategy that has adopted Socialism economic development with Chinese characteristics, which has been fundamental in achieving its goals in the past 100 years.
Despite being the world’s second largest economy, China does not consider itself a developed nation and has set its second goal looking forward to the next 100 years meant to
achieve national rejuvenation.
“In his speech, marking the Centenary of the Communist Party of China, President Xi said: “We will not accept con- descending sermons from those who feel they have the right to lecture. The Party and the Chinese people will keep on moving confidently forward in broad strides along the path that we have chosen for our- selves and we will make sure that Chinese’s destiny, devel- opment and progress remain firmly in our own hands.”
China has always pursued modernisation in agriculture, technology and its general economic expansion based of the principle of Chinese development with Chinese char- acteristics. The people-centred development has always promoted the values and tradition of always putting people first, the people being the best asset for governance to China’s socialist democracy.
President Xi, having spent much of his life in the countryside as a villager, has the best testimony of poverty and understands why, in his time as Secretary General of the Communist Party of China and President of China has worked hard to win the battle against the vice.
President Xi envisages: “If you cannot employ the strength of the people, you will be invincible under heaven.”
Mao Tse-tung, in his June, 1945 speech at the Seventh National Congress of the CPC promulgated the essence of hard work using the ancient Chinese fable illustration of the “Foolish Old Man” in which mountains were conquered to build modern-day China.
“We should fire the whole people with the conviction that China belongs not to the reactionaries but to the Chinese people.
There is an ancient Chinese fable called ‘The Foolish Old Man Who Removed the Mountains’. It tells of an old man who lived in northern China long, long ago and was known as the Foolish Old Man of North Mountain.
His house faced south and beyond his doorway stood the two great peaks, Taihang and Wangwu, obstructing the way,” Mao Tse-tung said at the congress.
He called his sons, and hoe in hand they began to dig up these mountains with great de- termination.
Another graybeard, known as the Wise Old Man, saw them and said derisively, “How silly of you to do this! It is quite im- possible for you few to dig up those two huge mountains.”
The Foolish Old Man re- plied, “When I die, my sons will carry on; when they die, there will be my grandsons, and then their sons and grandsons, and so on to infinity. High as they are, the mountains cannot grow any higher and with ev- ery bit we dig, they will be that much lower. Why can’t we clear them away?” he told the dele- gates to the congress.
Using the adage of the Old Foolish Man, China has since defeated two of its mountains, imperialism and feudalism, that were an obstacle to the economic, scientific and technological development of the country.
REVOLUTIONISING THE AGRICULTURE SECTOR
China has been an agricultural society yet by 1978, more than 75 percent of its citizens were living in poverty and until its leadership made the eradication of poverty its political priority.
In 1978, the Chinese leader- ship decided that land should be distributed to farmers and peasant households and
through the Socialist market economy, the farmers were able to grow their food and able to find their market out- side the country.
China then started attracing foreign investment into the country and the private economy began to grow with significant leaps and bounds to the extent that sectors such as agriculture, energy and health re- cording monumental growth.
THE JOURNEY TO CLEAN ENVIRONMENT
China’s ambition to eradicate absolute poverty was replicated in her efforts to clean up its environment both on earth and in the atmosphere and by the year 2014, the China had declared war against pollution.
The war against pollution was meant to deal with pollution with the same vigour and determination the country embarked on in its battle against poverty.
And by 2021, Beijing, the administrative capital of China had reduced pollution by 63 percent, which was an aver- age annual reduction of about eight percent.
China is so far running to- wards green energy and has so far gone 50 percent in the manufacturing of electric vehicles, thereby drastically reducing the emission of pollutants.
The skies of Beijing and many other provinces are as naturally blue as they can and Chinese are breathing healthy and clean air, which has been one of the reasons the life expectancy of the Chinese has now grown to 78 years.
It has been said that air pollution reductions in China had so far added more years to Chinese people’s average life expectancy with the sustained reductions of carbon emissions, which had also resulted into significant reduction in health expenditures as people are living more healthier lives.
China’s geographic and demographic size, its careful use of both state and market mechanisms to maintain economic growth and the socio-economic policies it has adopted since the 1970s have transformed the country.
Yet China has remained a developing economy whose development began from a very low economic and technological level in its bid to con- struct a harmonious society.
China, therefore remains a massive and, so far, a successful economic experiment that has delivered on its promises to make the state a more important player in the world.
