China’s Xi Jinping declares defeat of extreme poverty in 2021 – SCMP archive

This article was first published on February 26, 2021.

By Mimi Lau

Xi claims victory in eliminating extreme poverty

China has declared com­plete suc­cess in elim­in­at­ing extreme poverty, with Pres­id­ent Xi Jin­ping hail­ing the lift­ing of 850 mil­lion people out of des­ti­tu­tion as an “unpre­ced­en­ted accom­plish­ment” unmatched by any nation in mod­ern his­tory.

In a speech at a cere­mony in Beijing yes­ter­day (February 25, 2021) to com­mend poverty fight­ers, broad­cast live by state tele­vi­sion, Xi said his sig­na­ture cam­paign to improve live­li­hoods had added 100 mil­lion people to the total dur­ing his eight years in power.

“There is no other coun­try that could achieve such remark­able poverty alle­vi­ation pro­gress within such a short time,” he said.

The suc­cess in fight­ing poverty has been pegged to ambi­tious eco­nomic reform, and comes at a time the nation is recov­er­ing ahead of other global powers from the pan­demic amid open ten­sions with the United States.

South China Morning Post