Poverty is like a chronic disease and a perpetual challenge for humanity. Since 2012, the Communist Party of China (CPC) has worked relentlessly towards this end under the leadership of its General Secretary Xi Jinping.
These efforts have enabled one-fifth of the world’s population to successfully implement the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and achieve the poverty reduction target in 2021, almost a decade ahead of the cut-off point.
How China pulled it off can be instructive for other countries, including Pakistan. To begin with, it couldn’t have been possible without the commitment of China’s leadership to this cause. Together with the Chinese government, the CPC has been doing its utmost to alleviate poverty, showing great concern for the well-being of the people in underdeveloped areas. President Xi has put poverty elimination at the top of the government’s and CPC’s agendas.
The political determination to fight poverty was accompanied by the implementation of comprehensive scientific plans for poverty reduction, the introduction of a holistic approach, and numerous strategies that took into account regional conditions and different poverty levels.
Political determination accompanied by comprehensive scientific plans, a holistic approach, and numerous strategies can help developing nations, like Pakistan, alleviate poverty
The first line of action in tackling poverty is to sort out the poor segments and the vulnerable population clusters, getting to the bottom of “who to help?” China formulated smart standard operating procedures for defining poverty criteria, mobilised government officials and civil servants to position them in villages to look into the root causes of poverty, analyse the distribution of the poor segments, and take care of their needs so as to identify the nuanced targets for poverty eradication.
Taking advantage of the big data and IT technology, the poverty alleviation drive has picked up pace and further accelerated. Poverty reduction efforts also hinge on solving the matrix of “how to offer help?”
China has established a functional system in which the central government is overall in charge, and the provincial, municipal and county-level governments are all responsible for project implementation, allocation of capable cadres to villages, setting parameters and targets, drawing up action plans and timetables, and mobilising all possible resources to mitigate poverty.
At the end of 2020, 255,000 resident task forces had been dispatched to the poor villages, fighting on the front lines of poverty alleviation alongside nearly two million township officials and millions of village social workers. The ultimate solution to poverty begs the answer to “how to help?” Only by prescribing the right medicine can poverty be uprooted.
China has not only increased its national finance award and budgetary transfers to localities to “supply blood” to the poor areas but has also supported the provincial and local governments in villages’ socioeconomic development by implanting modern industrial and agricultural technology, expertise and human capital in the form of “blood infusion”, so as to enable the regions concerned to reduce poverty.
In areas with a harsh environment and frequent natural disasters, relocating village people is a must, and it is carried out in accordance with the principle of voluntary participation. Measures were taken to improve water supply, electricity and road infrastructure; invest more in education and healthcare; and rebuild and enhance the ecosystems. In short, China has incorporated a new development philosophy in tackling poverty and achieving progress.
By getting out of poverty and achieving the key parameter of the UN Sustainable Development Goal 2030, some 1.4 billion Chinese people have provided the world — the developing countries in particular — with an alternate path and a new paradigm for combating poverty.
China’s initiatives have won massive support and cooperation from a large majority of countries and international organisations. According to a World Bank report, the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) will help get 7.6m people out of extreme poverty and 32m more out of moderate poverty in the countries along the route. China does not export revolutions or ideologies but is willing to share with the world its successful poverty-fighting experience, strengthen exchange and cooperation, and work together to promote an international anti-poverty campaign.
Pakistan is also faced with serious poverty issues, which are more pronounced in some far-flung areas. The Pakistani government has been committed to developing the economy, strengthening governance, improving people’s livelihoods, and endeavouring to get them out of poverty.
China and Pakistan are ironclad friends and all-weather strategic partners. Our friendship has been time-tested and our development concepts are compatible. At the Beijing High-Level Forum on Poverty Alleviation and Development 2024, the China-Pakistan BRI Joint Laboratory on Small Hydropower Technology was awarded the Best Case of Global Poverty Alleviation.
Moreover, while continuing the upgradation of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, the two countries will plan and cooperate more on healthcare, agriculture, education, industrialisation, climate resilience and disaster mitigation, and deliver more ‘small and beautiful’ livelihood-enhancing projects.
In view of further deepening the traditional friendship and all-round cooperation, China is eager to share its poverty-fighting experiences and practices with Pakistan, promote exchanges and cooperation, and help the latter unlock tremendous potential for stability, growth and development.
The people of Pakistan are conscientious, hard-working, and persevering. Under the strategic guidance of the leaders of the two countries, coupled with concerted efforts and smart strategies from both sides, I sincerely believe that the Pakistani people, like the Chinese, are ready to embark on the journey to get out of poverty and realise development and prosperity.
The writer is the consul general of China in Lahore.
Published in Dawn, The Business and Finance Weekly, March 3rd, 2025
