At the end of February, Xi Jinping announced that mainland China had entered full prosperity at a poverty-removal commendation conference, and that 98.99 million rural poor people had all been lifted out of poverty. However, foreign media in Europe and the United States and other countries have generally raised doubts about this.
The Voice of America on Feb. 25 quoted human rights activists in mainland China as saying that “it is difficult to consolidate poverty alleviation if the foundation is not stable,” and the commander of mainland China’s financial scholars commented that the poverty eradication recognition conference was meant to build momentum for Xi’s long-term rule.
Voice of America reports that the Epidemic has left the Chinese regime “isolated” in the international community, and that the “Belt and Road” project has an uncertain future, making poverty alleviation the only “bright spot” in Xi Jinping’s administration over the past nine years.
Exclusive: Internal documents leak CCP’s ‘poverty alleviation’ methods
The document requires governments and state-owned enterprises to purchase various products from poor counties to alleviate poverty through consumption.
In April 2020, the Communist Party of China Aviation Industry Group issued a document requesting all units of the group to do a good job of targeted poverty alleviation procurement. The picture is a screenshot of the document.
In April last year, the CPC Aviation Industry Group issued a document “Notice on the centralized procurement of agricultural products in targeted poverty alleviation counties”, saying that according to the Notice on the centralized procurement of stagnant agricultural products in targeted poverty alleviation counties of central enterprises by the Party Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC), all units of the group companies are required to do a good job in the procurement of agricultural products in targeted poverty alleviation counties, and the working period is from April to the end of September 2020.
The way of working is that the eight party building collaboration areas of the group company are responsible for decomposing and implementing the “consumption poverty alleviation index task”, and the relevant units will carry out the procurement work according to the arrangement.
The document said that the battle against poverty is “the primary task of the whole party and the whole country this year”, and that “all units of the group should pay great attention to it” and take the initiative to help targeted poverty alleviation through canteen purchases, staff welfare, staff love purchases, and encouraging business contacts to centralize purchases and other ways.
Screenshot of the “Summary table of agricultural products to be sold in the five counties targeted by the Aviation Industry Group for poverty alleviation
The document lists the list of poverty alleviation purchases that AIG needs to make, including tea, honey, bacon and other local specialties, as well as hand soap, hair conditioner, air freshener and other light industrial consumer goods, and even “consumer poverty alleviation kits” and “poverty alleviation specialties kits” that are directly labeled as “poverty alleviation” and packaged for sale.
Screenshot of Aviation Industry Group’s “2020 Annual Party Construction Collaboration Area Consumption Poverty Alleviation Plan
The document “2020 Annual Party Building Collaboration Zone Consumption Poverty Alleviation Help Plan Table” of the Aviation Industry Group shows that the state-owned enterprises are arranged with planned tasks in which areas as well as specific amounts of consumption poverty alleviation, etc.
Screenshot of the official letter “Announcing the Product Catalog for Poverty Alleviation in Shandong Province of Yantai and Dezhou Cities” issued by the CCP Yantai Poverty Alleviation Office on June 23, 2020
The official letter of “Announcing the Product Catalog for Poverty Alleviation in Shandong Province in Yantai and Dezhou Cities” issued by the CCP’s Yantai City Poverty Alleviation Office on June 23, 2020 indicates that, like state-owned enterprises such as the Aviation Industry Group, governments across the CCP have been assigned consumption poverty alleviation programs.
Can the CCP’s consumer poverty alleviation program really help poor people get out of poverty? The Chinese Communist Party media itself has raised questions and exposed its own Family scandal, saying “Consumption poverty alleviation dependence has to be cured!”
According to an August 13, 2020 article in the party media “Half Moon Talk”, poverty alleviation agricultural products are caught in a strange circle of “underwriting”, and the price of poverty alleviation agricultural products is high and the quality is inferior, and may even be “three-nothing products”.
The party media blamed unscrupulous merchants, intermediate channels and other factors for the problems exposed by poverty alleviation.
However, according to current affairs commentator Li Linyi, the CCP’s “consumer poverty alleviation” is only a stopgap measure, leaving aside whether the CCP’s poverty alleviation data is falsified.
Documents reveal CCP’s internal acknowledgement that “poverty alleviation” is full of problems
The internal documents obtained show that the Chinese Communist Party is well aware of the many problems in the battle against poverty, and can only repeatedly inspect and rectify them, but is unable to solve the root.
Screenshot of a document from the Communist Party’s poverty alleviation office in Wengniut Banner, Inner Mongolia
As early as October 24, 2019, the CCP Inner Mongolia Wengniut Banner City Poverty Alleviation Office disclosed the poverty alleviation problems found by the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region Poverty Alleviation Office during its unannounced visits and random checks to rectify the feedback problems in the “Report on the rectification of problems from the unannounced visits and random checks by the Regional Poverty Alleviation Office”. For example, the work of the poverty alleviation task force and responsible persons is “not deep enough”, “not helping to solve practical difficulties”, “industrial poverty alleviation projects are not precise enough”, “industrial projects to households lack sustainability”. “to the household industrial projects lack of sustainability”, financial poverty alleviation “policy implementation is not in place”, “out of poverty households there is the risk of returning to poverty” and many other issues.
The document also disclosed that the 2018 CPC assessment of Inner Mongolia’s battle against poverty had also pointed out 48 specific problems in 24 categories in eight areas. Although the document claims that Wengqi has “completed the rectification of all the poverty alleviation problems” found in 2018, it does not change the fact that the problems were repeatedly identified and continued to be rectified in the coming year.
The poverty alleviation problems of the Wengqi government are not exceptional under the rule of the Communist Party of China. For example, the government of Chifeng City, Inner Mongolia, also disclosed the CCP’s “poverty reduction achievements” and “strong dependence on financial poverty reduction funds and policies” in the list document “State Council Poverty Alleviation Office 2020 Poverty Reduction Inspection.
In addition, the “photovoltaic poverty alleviation” document issued by the government of Moqi, Inner Mongolia on May 22, 2020 shows that the CCP used administrative instructions to arrange “photovoltaic poverty alleviation” projects. The so-called “photovoltaic poverty alleviation” is the installation of solar panels on the roofs of houses and agricultural sheds, where farmers can use the electricity themselves and sell the excess to the national grid. “Photovoltaic poverty alleviation” is the Communist Party of China State Council Poverty Alleviation Office in 2015 to determine the implementation of the “top ten precision poverty alleviation project” one.
But in reality, how effective is the poverty alleviation project? The party media Xinhua News Agency published an article on October 20, 2020, citing Xuyi County, Jiangsu Province’s Xiyi PV poverty alleviation project as an example, disclosing that if it were not for the PV project, Xiyi Village would have been out of poverty long ago, but now the PV project has not only failed to alleviate poverty, but also made Xiyi Village heavily in debt.
Exclusive: Communist Party grassroots have grievances about “poverty alleviation
The Chinese Communist Party’s poverty alleviation documents and party media articles have exposed that poverty alleviation projects are not real and even add to the burden of poverty alleviation. And internal speeches by local governments reveal that the grassroots in the CCP are also full of complaints and grievances about the so-called “poverty alleviation battle.
In 2017, Li Decai, deputy secretary of the Zhoukou Municipal Party Committee in Henan Province, held a “pro-war mobilization meeting” in response to a surprise inspection of poverty eradication work by his superiors.
Screenshot of a document from the meeting of Li Decai, deputy secretary of the Zhoukou municipal party committee, on poverty alleviation in 2017
Li Decai said at the meeting that Zhoukou City is experiencing “a serious situation that has never been encountered since the start of the war on poverty” because the province will come to verify, evaluate and accept the work, and then the central government will also accept it. Li Decai said that the party government has listed “the responsibility target book that is the military order, the form is very serious”.
Li Decai also disclosed that “at 7:30 this morning, the third-party assessment suddenly moved in”, so “up to now the counties are very anxious, restless”; in the investigation work, some people may put “grievances issued”, so “this afternoon to spend half a day to solve the problem, so that tomorrow’s scheduling, command, grassroots response more properly”.
Li Decai concluded the reasons for the unfavorable poverty alleviation, including “wariness”, “slackness” and “resistance”, disclosing that the grassroots government “has complaints”.
Exclusive: Poverty alleviation should also export the “CPC model” to the outside world
The 2019 Letter of Assistance sent by the Foreign Affairs Office of Jilin Province to the Provincial Poverty Alleviation Office reveals the CCP’s eagerness to export its influence to the outside world, not only in promoting the “Belt and Road” but also in promoting its “precise poverty alleviation” model on the issue of poverty alleviation.
Letter of Assistance from the Foreign Affairs Office of Jilin Province to the Provincial Poverty Alleviation Office in 2019
According to the Letter of Assistance from the Foreign Affairs Office, a delegation from the African country of Botswana visited Jilin Province from June 23 to 27, 2019, with the main objectives of learning from the experience of building party organizations and promoting precise poverty alleviation.
The official letter disclosed that Botswana’s “learning” precision poverty alleviation is actually arranged by the Chinese Communist Party, is the implementation of the return visit to Jilin Provincial Party Secretary Bayin Chaolu’s past visits and follow-up to promote the results. April 2019, Bayin Chaolu had visited Botswana to promote the “Belt and Road “, deepen the relationship between the two parties and the two countries, and promote local precise docking and pragmatic cooperation.
Jilin Foreign Affairs Office “letter of assistance” requires the Provincial Poverty Alleviation Office to “attach great importance to and provide assistance on the reception work”.
Is mainland China really out of poverty?
Is mainland China really out of poverty? Xi Jinping’s “miracle on earth” theory of poverty eradication has been smacked in the face by the BBC and other foreign media.
The BBC reported on February 27 that Xi Jinping had created a “miracle on earth” by announcing in high profile the day before the Lantern Festival that “the battle against poverty has been comprehensively won”. The BBC analyzed Xi’s “human miracle” of poverty eradication in terms of the CCP’s poverty headcount algorithm and international and U.S. poverty standards.
The BBC begins by noting that the 98.99 million poor people officially declared by the CCP to be “lifted out of poverty” were supposedly derived from a 2016 estimate by Chen Xiwen, then deputy head of the CCP’s Central Leading Group for Rural Work, that “China’s rural poor population in 2012 was measured according to its own standard (2,300 yuan/person-years in 2010 at constant prices) The measured rural poverty population in 2012, on the other hand, was 98.99 million.”
Ignoring the timeliness and veracity of this long-standing poverty figure, the BBC cites data from the World Bank’s Communist Party website for September 2020, stating that today “about 373 million mainlanders still live below the upper middle-income poverty line of $5.50 a day.”
In 2019, Liu Yongfu, director of the State Council’s Poverty Alleviation Office, said the standard for poverty eradication in 2020 should reach about 4,000 yuan per person per year, while the National Bureau of Statistics of the Communist Party of China (NBSC) announced that the median per capita disposable income for rural residents in 2020 is 15,204 yuan, and the median per capita disposable income for urban residents is 40,378 yuan. The poverty line set by the CCP has fallen to nearly a quarter of the median per capita income in rural areas and less than a tenth of the median income of urban residents.
In the international community, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), for example, proposes to use the proportional income method to determine the international poverty standard, using half of the median income as the poverty line. The World Bank, on the other hand, defines less than one-third of the median income as relative poverty.
According to the BBC, according to the OECD’s criteria and official Chinese Communist Party data, those with an annual income below 13,770 yuan will be poor in mainland China in 2020. Chinese Premier Li Keqiang disclosed during a meeting of the National People’s Congress in May 2020 that 600 million Chinese have an average monthly income of just about 1,000 yuan, which largely matches the World Bank’s estimate of China’s total poor population based on the $5.50 per person per day standard.
The U.K. defines those with incomes below 60 percent of the median as relatively poor, and the U.S. has a similar standard for classifying poverty, which is higher than the OECD standard and far higher than the CCP’s poverty line standard.
The Real Root Cause of Poverty in Mainland China
Despite the ongoing earthquakes, typhoons, floods, and epidemics in mainland China in 2020, the Chinese Communist Party authorities have announced that all poor counties in the country have been “lifted out of poverty” “in accordance with established guidelines. The picture shows villagers in Aba Prefecture, Sichuan Province, transporting Food for their livestock to their old village on April 23, 2018. (Johannes Eisele/AFP via Getty Images)
So what exactly is the root cause of the existence of mass poverty in China in the modern world?
Current affairs commentator Li Linyi argues that the “precise poverty alleviation” model and “consumer poverty alleviation” programs promoted by the Communist Party, as well as the various poverty alleviation issues disclosed by the Communist Party media and internal documents, all evade the root causes of poverty in mainland China.
Li Linyi said that although the factors leading to poverty are complex, in mainland China, it is mainly due to the CCP’s monopoly of economic resources and the capture of wealth by the powerful and noble groups; and the CCP’s planned economy-style “consumer poverty alleviation” is not sincere in helping people get out of poverty, because as the ancient saying goes, “It is better to teach people to fish than to give them a fish. “.
Li Linyi said that the only way to solve the problem of mass poverty in mainland China is to overhaul the CCP’s political and economic systems, open up markets and finance, and create a fairer and cleaner market environment for the poorer regions. But for the CCP, this is tantamount to “cutting itself off from the people,” so the root of the problem of poverty in mainland China is the CCP itself.
The Voice of America analyzed on February 15, 2018, that Xi’s war on poverty could become a war on the poor, because “making poverty eradication a government task and achieving the goal through special means is not sustainable, and poverty will come back afterwards.
According to Li Linyi, the Communist Party’s declared victory in the war on poverty is actually Xi Jinping’s “war on poverty show” because Xi cannot solve the poverty problem, but only uses planned economic means and political campaigns to put on a show, so the Communist Party’s war on poverty is not the rise of a great power, but the collapse of a building.
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