mandag 6. september 2021

How Successful Was China’s Poverty Alleviation Drive?

In February 2021, in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic and the ensuing global economic downturn, President Xi Jinping declared that China had eliminated poverty in 2020. Poverty elimination was one of Xi’s most signature national policies. Since Xi took power in 2012, China lifted over 100 million members of its rural populationout of poverty. Xi called this campaign a “complete victory,” a “miracle for humankind,” and China’s great contribution to the world. Chinese media credited the tremendous success to the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), stating that such a success would be impossible without the “institutional advantage” of the Chinese party-state political system.

Poverty elimination was a mass mobilization campaign. Since Mao Zedong developed the Mass Line during the Yan’an era, mass mobilization has been the CCP’s key to success, ranging from its civil war victory to its management of the COVID-19 pandemic. Since the campaign started in 2015, the Chinese government has spent over $80 billion to end poverty.