At the opening of the National People’s Congress in Beijing on March 5, Chinese Communist Party leaders set the economic growth target for 2021 at “more than 6 percent. On a street near the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, an old woman picks up rags in a garbage bin and puts them in a cart to be sold to a recycling station.
In recent years, the Communist Party of China (CPC) has been shouting slogans for poverty eradication and moderate prosperity, and on the eve of the CPC’s two sessions, the official media unanimously proclaimed “comprehensive poverty eradication” in a high profile, and Xi Jinping even called “poverty eradication” as the so-called “miracle on earth. The “eradication of poverty” was even described by Xi Jinping as a so-called “miracle on earth”. In fact, poverty is widespread in China’s big cities, and people at the bottom of the ladder have always lived by collecting garbage and selling used goods.
On March 11, Li Keqiang made a speech at the closing press conference of the Chinese Communist Party’s National People’s Congress, again referring to the severe employment situation this year, saying that about 14 million people were added to the urban labor force, including 9.09 million college graduates, a record high. It is also necessary to protect the employment of retired military personnel and to provide working opportunities for 278 million migrant workers.
At the press conference of the two sessions of the Communist Party of China last year, Li Keqiang mentioned that “600 million people earn only 1,000 yuan a month”, which aroused external attention.
Below is a set of photos taken by an AFP reporter in some of China’s major cities this year, reflecting the lives of ordinary people.
An elderly man pushes a cart with his belongings on a street in Beijing on March 2.
A migrant worker carries a large bag on his shoulder and another bag in his other hand on a street in central Beijing on March 10.
A noodle store steams steamed buns on a street in Beijing on March 3.
Fruit vendors chat with passersby about prices on a street in Beijing on March 6.
A migrant worker drives an electric cart pulling recycled goods in Beijing on Feb. 25.
A retired worker recycles used goods on a street in Beijing on Feb. 24.
A migrant worker pulls a cart of recycled goods on a street in Beijing on Feb. 24.
Migrant workers write all the jobs they can do on signs and hang them on bicycles and motorcycles as they wait to be hired in Shenyang, Liaoning province, Feb. 25.
Migrant workers put all the jobs they can do on signs waiting to be hired in Shenyang, Liaoning province, Feb. 25.
Migrant workers put all the jobs they can do on signs and hang them on bicycles and motorcycles as they wait to be hired in Shenyang, Liaoning province, Feb. 25.
Migrant workers write all the jobs they can do on signs and hang them on bicycles and motorcycles as they wait to be hired in Shenyang, Liaoning province, Feb. 25.
Migrant workers write all the jobs they can do on a sign and wait to be hired in Shenyang, Liaoning province, Feb. 25.
Migrant workers put all the jobs they can do on a sign waiting to be hired in Shenyang, Liaoning province, Feb. 25.
Migrant workers write all the jobs they can do on a sign and hang it on a motorcycle as they wait to be hired in Shenyang, Liaoning province, Feb. 25.
Farmers pull a donkey cart to sell groundnuts at a street market in Shenyang, Liaoning province, on March 10.
People earn money by selling their wares at a street market in Shenyang, northeast China’s Liaoning province, March 10.
A man delivers Food on a motorcycle on the streets of Shanghai on March 5.
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