Targeted Poverty Alleviation
In his speeches, Xi Jinping emphasizes that without solving the poverty problem in rural areas, China cannot become a moderately prosperous society.
Chinese premier, Li Keqiang, said in his government report in March 2014, “local governments need to merge poverty alleviation resources….and take targeted measures to ensure that assistance reaches poverty-stricken villages and households.”[4] In November 2011, then Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao announced that China was raising the poverty line from RMB 1274 to 2300 (per capita net income).
[10][11] The campaign is accompanied by a book collecting General Secretary Xi Jinping's quotes on poverty alleviation published by the CCP.
[13] Besides through the remarkable financial commitment, the PRC also mobilizes large parts of the political system as well as of the private sector to achieve its objective of poverty alleviation.
[citation needed] In January 2014, the Central People's Government of the PRC published the "Opinions on Innovative Mechanisms to Promote Rural Poverty Alleviation and Development".
The guiding principles of the Decisions are the following: 1) The Four Modernizations of former core leader Deng Xiaoping; 2) The thinking of the "three representatives" (三个代表); 3) Hu Jintao‘s concept of scientific development, including economic production, cultural development and political consensus; 4) The spirit of the series of keynote speeches by General Secretary Xi Jinping around the Four Comprehensives: The Decisions develop several goals: They aim to solve “liang buchou, san bao xian” - the “two no worries” (i.e. the food and clothing problem) as well as the “three guarantees” (i.e. guaranteed access to education, medical care and housing).
[19] Two months later a statement was issued after the Central Economic Work Conference which also targeted poverty alleviation as one of three “tough battles” to win on the following three years, along with major risk control and pollution prevention.
[21] In August 2018, the CCP Central Committee issued “Guiding Opinions on the Three Year Action Plan to Win the Battle against Poverty”.
But he also stated that with increased efforts by all government levels and the deployment of security and rescue funds, getting rid of poverty within 2020 was still the unchanged goal for the CCP.
Xi has said that "no one should be left behind on the road towards xiaokang.”[26] China's official media reports that Xi has toured dozens of impoverished villages since he took office as CCP general secretary in 2012, “sharing his rich experience in poverty eradication work and putting himself on the front lines of the war on poverty.”[27] In November 2013, he paid an inspection visit to Xiangxi, Hunan province in central China.
[28][29][30] During his tour to Shibadong village in Xiangxi, Xi asked the local government to take measures to “keep track of every household and individual in poverty to verify that their treatment is having the desired effect.
At the central level, it is led by two main institutional bodies: the State Council's Leading Group for Poverty Alleviation and Development (国务院扶贫开发领导小组 guó wù yuàn fú pín kāi fā lǐng dǎo xiǎo zǔ) led by PRC Vice Premier Hu Chunhua represents the main state institution mandated with poverty alleviation.
[32] Within the organization of the CCP, there exists an additional Central Rural Work Leading Group that also oversees poverty alleviation in the Chinese countryside.
Cross-system leading groups exist which consist of the leaders of all relevant departments such as the ones in charge of party affairs, finance, education, transportation, the armed police as well as the discipline inspection commission.
Two main political goals are apparent: (1) new (adapted) governance structures enhance the overall effectiveness of the set of measures and (2) enable the party-state to reclaim lost ground in the villages.
To be better able to decrease poverty rates in the countryside, the party put in place the system of a rural first-secretary-in-residence (驻村第一书记 zhù cūn dì yī shūjì).
One example for these recent efforts is the Villagers Poverty Alleviation Working Committee (村民小组脱贫工作委员会 cūnmín xiǎozǔ tuōpín gōngzuò wěiyuánhuì) in Ximeng County in Yunnan.
Therefore, the central government announced a statement on November 19, 2014, by the General Office of the State Council, how to mobilize all social forces to participate in poverty reduction and development in China.
The Chinese government fosters education of voluntary organizations which encourage the advantages of respective participants, e.g. students, experts, technicians, retirees, and other members of society.
Furthermore, the Chinese government promotes an intensive system to encourage social participation in poverty allocation, via commendations, awards, and better career opportunities.
The "10,000 Enterprises Help 10,000 Villages" (万企帮万村 wanqi bang wancun) project is a large-scale example of the integration of the private sector and society into Targeted Poverty Alleviation.
Secondly, enterprises should furthermore be encouraged to recruit employees, strengthen pre-job and in-service training, provide labor and social security and achieve stable employment and income increase for poor households.
In order to help impoverished villages, enterprises ought to engage in projects of infrastructural, medical, educational, social and cultural development.
[40] As part of the “10,000 Enterprises Help 10,000 Villages” project, companies like the Alibaba Group have been very visible in poverty alleviation in recent years.
[43] In Xinjiang, where local governments seek to address ethnic tensions in the region through poverty alleviation and redistributive programs, officials paired 1,000 villages with 1,000 enterprises for economic development projects.
[45] The Targeted Poverty Alleviation Campaign and the fast allocation of resources have quickly raised the living standards of many households in rural China.
[13] However, the political necessity to achieve the 2020 target led various counties to develop quick fixes instead of sustainable strategies that would lead to economic benefits in the long run.
Academics report that households often receive one-time financial or material support in order to officially escape the poverty line.
[8] A further point of criticism refers to the possibility of cadres manipulating the poverty alleviation statistics of households for the sake of personal promotion.
[9] Additionally, Targeted Poverty Alleviation principally addresses relatively better-off poor households as their promotion is more likely to benefit the local economy.
