China set to eliminate ‘absolute poverty’ by the end of this year

China is marching towards eliminating ‘absolute poverty’ by the end of the 2020 as country marked the seventh National Poverty Relief Day, also the 28th International Day for the Eradication of Poverty on Saturday.

With less then 100 days remaining in the year for China to achieve the task, let’s dig in how far it has come in achieving the goal.

Most provinces have already been declared free of absolute poverty.

As per the data from China’s National Bureau of Statistics, the number of poor rural residents in the country plunged from 98.99 million in 2012 to 5.51 million by the end of 2019.

Meanwhile, the number of impecunious counties in China has fallen from 832 in 2015 to 52 in 2019, the State Council Leading Group Office of Poverty Alleviation and Development stated.

In 2020, as many as 52 poverty hit countries in seven provinces and regions become key battlegrounds for poverty-eradication. A few of them have met the standards for gaining the poverty-free status, while others are expected to accomplish the goal in coming months.

It has been declared the final year of China’s new round of anti-poverty drive, which started in 2012 with an aim to end domestic poverty before 2021.

The sweeping campaign to defeat rural poverty was part of building a moderately and comprehensively prosperous society.

2020 has been no ordinary year for China and the world. COVID-19 epidemic and floods in southern China posed daunting challenges to the national fight against poverty.

The present poverty eradication goals consist of not only eliminating all instances of absolute poverty on schedule, but also consolidating the achievements of poverty reduction efforts, ensuring that people who have gotten out of poverty do not fall back into it.