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February 27, 2017

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Revolutionary heartland no longer impoverished

JINGGANGSHAN, the heartland of the early revolutionary activities of the Communist Party of China in eastern Jiangxi Province, has been officially taken off the list of impoverished areas.

The city was home to the Party’s first rural revolutionary base established in 1927. Today, people who live under the poverty line account for 1.6 percent of the total population, according to Jinggangshan’s government, lower than the national standard of 2 percent.

The local government yesterday attributed the success to the precision poverty relief campaign in full swing across the country — precision means that money should be spent exactly where needed, and no more than is needed.

Jinggangshan’s poor population stood at 16,934 in 2014. That figure has fallen to 1,417 today. The average net income of poor families has grown from 2,600 yuan (US$378) to more than 4,500 yuan.

Red Army experience

Jinggangshan has helped people to start their own businesses or find jobs, while providing a safety net for those who were unable. In addition, it has helped poor people to move into better quality homes and improved infrastructure in rural areas.

The government has encouraged poor people to be part of the city’s most successful industries, such as tea, bamboo, fruit plantations, processing, and aquaculture.

Zhong Wanyin has stopped worrying about money since he started work in his village fish farm and earns more than 20,000 yuan a year. He is also a shareholder in the farm with an investment of 5,000 yuan funded by the government, which has brought him a 20 percent annual dividend.

E-commerce has helped produce from Jinggangshan’s 18 townships to reach buyers beyond the mountains, benefiting more than 2,400 people.

“Over 17,000 parcels, worth some 1.6 million yuan, have been sent since this e-commerce service center opened over a year ago,” said Huang Xiaohua, head of the e-commerce service station center in Huang’ao Township.

Jinggangshan has also capitalized on its fame as the revolutionary heartland. For example, Bashang Village offers a one-day training program to experience the life of the Red Army and attracted more than 40,000 participants in 2016.

“My family hosted 850 people attending the program last year, and earned more than 10,000 yuan by providing room and board,” said villager Xiao Fumin.

Poverty alleviation remains a pressing task in China. The government has decided to eradicate poverty by 2020, the target year for the country to become a “moderately prosperous” society.

According to official figures, China still had 55.75 million people living under the poverty line at the end of 2015. The government has said 10 million people were lifted out of poverty in 2016 and another 10 million will be this year.

A national coordinated development strategy has contributed to poverty reduction in northern Hebei Province, whose counties bordering on Beijing and Tianjin were once described as a “poverty belt.”

‘A better life’

One million people emerged from poverty last year in Hebei, but about 2 million remain in miserable conditions. A further 700,000 should be freed from their shackles this year in Hebei through supplying agricultural products to those two rich neighbors.

There are plans for a number of resorts in the province to accommodate city residents keen to spend their weekends in the mountains.

Southwest China’s Guizhou, one of the most impoverished provinces, plans to relocate 750,000 people this year as a poverty alleviation measure.

A total of 181,000 households will be moved from remote, inhospitable areas in the hope of providing them with “a better life,” said Wang Yingzheng, head of a provincial relocation bureau. Over 3,600 entire villages will be moved.

The cost of the operation is estimated at 45 billion yuan (US$6.6 billion).

Southwestern Yunnan Province plans to bring 1 million of its 3.5 million poor people above the poverty line in 2017.




 

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