Background On 21 October 2015, CCP general secretary
Xi Jinping mentioned in a speech in
London, the United Kingdom that "according to China's standards, there are still 70 million people in China who have not escaped poverty. According to the
United Nations standards, there are still about 200 million people living below the poverty line in China." He proposed a plan to continue to reduce poverty. At the end of October 2015, the fifth plenary Session of the 18th CCP Central Committee reviewed and passed the "Proposal of the CCP Central Committee on Formulating the 13th Five-Year Plan for National Economic and Social Development", which proposed the goals, tasks and requirements for the fight against poverty during the
13th Five-Year Plan period. The plan was focused on rural
hukou holders who live in the countryside. It set three goals to be achieved by 2020: • Lift all rural residents below the current national rural poverty line out of poverty • Lift all
national-level poor counties out of poverty • Eliminate overall regional poverty From 27 to 28 November 2015, the Central Poverty Alleviation and Development Work Conference was held in Beijing, where Xi said that eliminating poverty, improving people's livelihood, and gradually achieving
common prosperity are the essential requirements of socialism and an important mission of the CCP. He also required the whole country and the whole party to ensure that by 2020, all poor areas and poor people will enter a well-off society in an all-round way. On November 29 of the same year, the “Decision of the CCP Central Committee and the State Council on Winning the Battle Against Poverty” was issued, and various ministries and commissions subsequently detailed the decision:
The campaign Xi promoted the slogan
Two No Worries and Three Guarantees; "two no worries" means no worries about food and clothing, while "three guarantees" means compulsory education, basic medical care, and housing security are guaranteed. To meet the first target, local governments were required to raise their per capita income to above the rural poverty line of ¥4,000 yuan. To meet the second target, local governments were required to cover their school fees, significantly subsidize the cost of their annual health insurance, and provide safe permanent structures for housing them.In November 2015, in order to prevent the occurrence of digital poverty alleviation and fraud in poverty alleviation work, the CCP Central Committee and the State Council established a strict assessment and evaluation system. The party and government leaders of the 22 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities with heavy poverty alleviation tasks signed a "Poverty Alleviation Responsibility Letter" with the central government, which was signed at all levels to the grassroots level in the form of a military order. In 2016, the Chinese government announced that close to 10 million poor rural residents must be relocated due to the anti-poverty campaign, either due to living in areas that are designated for ecological conservation and thus must not be developed, officially classified as inhospitable or prone to natural disasters, or too far away from a main road. This led to the relocation of 9.6 million rural residents by 2020, At the end of December 2016, in his 2017 New Year's message, Xi Jinping called on everyone to "
roll up their sleeves and work hard" and "win the battle against poverty." In February 2017, various parts of China conducted self-examination and self-correction of false poverty alleviation in 2016. According to data from 2018, the number of people in poverty has decreased from 98.99 million in 2012 to 16.60 million in 2018, a total decrease of 82.39 million. The annual poverty reduction scale has been above 10 million for six consecutive years, and the poverty incidence rate has dropped from 10.2% to 1.7%. On 5 March 2019, Premier
Li Keqiang proposed in the
Government Work Report to fight a well-targeted battle against poverty. The focus will be on solving the outstanding problems faced in achieving Two No Worries and Three Guarantees, increasing the efforts to fight poverty in deep poverty areas such as the "three districts and three prefectures", and implementing protection measures for special poor people. In October 2019, the State Council established the National Poverty Alleviation Census Leading Group, with Vice Premier
Hu Chunhua as the group leader, and
Ning Jizhe, Gao Yu, Liu Yongfu, Guo Weimin, Luo Wen, and Cheng Lihua as deputy group leaders. On 23 November 2020, the
Guizhou Provincial People's Government announced that the last nine poor counties in the province had officially been removed from the title of "poor counties". Since then, all 832 national-level poor counties identified by the State Council of China were lifted out of poverty and removed from the title of poor counties, completing the national poverty alleviation goal.
Conclusion On 3 December 2020, the
Politburo Standing Committee held a meeting to listen to the summary and evaluation report on poverty alleviation. Xi stated at the meeting that "we have completed the poverty alleviation goals and tasks in the new era as scheduled." On 25 February 2021, the CCP Central Committee and the State Council held the
National Poverty Alleviation Summary and Commendation Conference at the
Great Hall of the People in Beijing. At the meeting, Xi declared that China's poverty alleviation battle had achieved "comprehensive victory". On the same day, the Office of the Leading Group for Poverty Alleviation and Development of the State Council officially changed its name to the National Rural Revitalization Bureau. However, China's poor counties were required to undergo a five-year transition period from the date of their poverty alleviation, and mechanisms to prevent relapse into poverty and the onset of poverty still needed to be established and improved. == Cadres ==