Over 2,000 years ago when Confucius taught his thoughts on building a prosperous society, most Chinese muddled along on half-full stomachs. Even the sage himself suffered times of hardship.

Confucius’s 79th generation descendant, Kong Xianli, however, believes what the Chinese have dreamed of for over a millennia — a moderately prosperous, or xiaokang, society — is coming true.

“An overall xiaokang society will become reality in our generation, as the government and enterprises, state-owned or private, are helping those rural impoverished out of poverty,” said Kong, who has been sent to Yangxiedi village in Nanhua County by the local justice bureau in southwest China’s Yunnan Province to help the poor. “The aspiration for the rural impoverished to break loose from poverty is unprecedented.”

According to the official definition, a xiaokang society refers to an economic state whereby the people become relatively well-off after eliminating poverty, with access to compulsory education, basic medical care and safe homes, as well as food and clothes.

Like Yangxiedi, whose name means “resting place for goats” in Chinese, 128,000 impoverished villages are now in the center of a great transition across China. The Chinese government has vowed to lift all rural impoverished out of poverty by 2020 to build a moderately prosperous society.

Since China started the reform and opening-up drive more than 30 years ago, over 700 million Chinese have shaken off poverty at dazzling speed, accounting for over 70 percent of the global poverty reduction in the period.

However, at the end of last year, China still had more than 43 million impoverished rural residents, making up bout 4.5 percent of the country’s total rural population.

For the outside world, it may seem too simple to assess China’s anti-poverty achievements by looking at figures alone. For those living in poverty in mountainous areas in southwest China’s Yunnan, Guizhou and Sichuan provinces, poverty reduction is complicated. It means building roads and bridges, raising poultry and livestock, planting fruits and herbs, or seeking jobs in cities.

Luo Zhiming, an ethnic Miao in Ximatang village in Luquan County, Yunnan, had lived in the mud-brick house built by his father for 28 years.

“The roof leaked whenever it rained. Cold winds swept in from the cracks during winter,” Luo said, recalling their tough days when his family just about fed themselves by growing corn in a terraced field. His fate changed dramatically a few months ago when the government launched a nationwide drive to end poverty. Luo and his neighbors have now moved into 52 uniformly designed and newly built two-storey houses, with sofas, tea tables, TV benches and other furniture. “I never expected this even in my dreams,” Luo said.

To help build the new houses for Luo and his neighbors at Ximatang, the local government subsidized each impoverished household with 40,000 yuan (about US$5,800) in cash and another 40,000 yuan in loans at subsidized interest.

Last year, the Chinese central and provincial governments allocated more than 100 billion yuan in special funds to help 12.4 million rural poor out of poverty. Another 100 billion yuan is available this year to lift an additional 10 million people out of poverty.

China set its current poverty line at an annual average net income of 2,300 yuan per capita based in real terms in 2010. The nominal poverty lines has since been adjusted according to inflation.

To realize a xiaokang society by 2020, China must lift 43 million people, almost equivalent to the population of Argentina, out of poverty in just four years, about 30,000 people a day.

For a country with over 1.3 billion people, the challenge is so high that governments at all levels have listed eradicating poverty as their top priority during the 13th Five-year Plan (2016-2020).

Historic mission

Chief officials and leading cadres from top to bottom have signed letters of responsibility, vowing to win the battle against poverty with considerable use of time, human resources and finance.

“Eradicating poverty is like a war and a historic mission that we must accomplish,” said Jiao Lin, Party secretary of Luquan County in Yunnan, home to about 3.6 million rural people in poverty. “I come to win the war, with no retreat.”

Located in mountainous areas, Luquan has been one of China’s poorest counties for the past 31 years. Now it is one of the main battle fields in the country’s fight against poverty, along with other revolutionary bases, ethnic minorities regions and border areas.

Once a veteran, Jiao now has to take on responsibility to lead the county’s rural impoverished out of poverty by 2020.

To wipe out poverty, the Chinese government not only set a multi-year timetable, but also created different policies for different regions, including developing business, relocating the impoverished, compensating peasants in ecologically fragile areas, promoting education and improving social security.

Governments at all levels have established special departments or leading groups on anti-poverty efforts, increased budgets for poverty reduction and ordered developed regions on the eastern coast to help underdeveloped regions in central and western China.

Moreover, special teams consisting of more than half a million officials, scientists, engineers and entrepreneurs are being sent to impoverished villages to alleviate poverty with their knowledge and resources.

To Kong and 700-plus villagers at Yangxiedi, building a bridge has become urgent for local people eager to get rid of poverty. Previously, there was no road directly linking the village with the outside world; villagers had to cross a river valley then walk a long way uphill to the nearest township. When the rain season came and the river rose, villagers were stranded in the mountains.

With help from Kong, local villagers now have the funds from the government for the construction of the new bridge they have long hoped for.

“It will not only be a bridge connecting the village with the outside world, but a bridge from poverty to a xiaokang society as well,” Kong said.

The authors are Xinhua writers.