China’s State Council Poverty Alleviation Office said in a press conference that by the end of this year, all poor people in the country will be lifted out of poverty. Last year, China spent more than 120 billion yuan on poverty alleviation, and it is popularly believed that the official end of poor households is to save money.
Ou Qingping, deputy director of China’s State Council Poverty Alleviation Office, said at a press conference held by the State Council Information Office on February 2 that this year is the end of the year of poverty alleviation, and last month, the remaining 52 poor counties in the country announced that they would be removed from the hat, so far, all 832 national poor counties have been removed from poverty, and the remaining poor population is carrying out the exit procedures. As things stand now, by the end of the year, the entire poor population will have been removed from the counties.
According to official records, by the end of 2015, there were still 832 poor counties, 128,000 poor villages, and 55.75 million people in poverty. 2018 will see the number of poor people reduced to 16.6 million.
Poverty Alleviation Accused of Image Project by Government Officials
Guangzhou dissident Wang Aizhong said in an interview with Radio Free Asia on Wednesday (2) that for government officials, the so-called poverty alleviation project is an image project that does not substantially help poor households: “Of course the higher-ups have this requirement, and local officials will definitely resort to fraudulent means to accomplish the task of poverty alleviation in order to complete their performance appraisals. I’ve heard that some local governments require poor households, give you a one-time subsidy, and require you to sign off on the fact that you’ve been lifted out of poverty.”
Wang Aizhong says that with all poor households out of the picture, those living in remote mountainous areas will inevitably lose their poverty subsidies: “Local governments will in turn hide their actual poverty status, leading to a large number of poor people living in dire straits.”
In mid-July last year, the head of China’s Ministry of Finance’s Leading Group for Poverty Alleviation said at a press conference that the central government will arrange 126.1 billion yuan in special poverty-alleviation funds in 2019.
Economic Downturn, Unemployment Rises Dramatically, but Miraculously Lifts People Out of Poverty
Last year, a large number of foreign companies left China, resulting in a large number of unemployed workers, and this year, the epidemic has affected the serious underemployment and exports, and it is highly unlikely that the number of poor people will disappear instead of increase in the economic downturn. There is only one explanation for this, he said: “In fact, he is just trying to exaggerate and go back to the way things were. On the other hand, he is trying to shed his burden. It’s not just the rural people who can’t make ends meet, it’s also the city dwellers, many of whom can’t make ends meet. The government’s revenue is also decreasing, and a series of tourism, catering and other services are unsustainable and closing down. How is his (the government’s) finances going to increase, so the government is now in a hurry and doesn’t want to burden these poor households anymore.”
The official announcement that all poor households will be “lifted out of poverty” is less than a month away. According to Bai Yang, a scholar at Yunnan University, the official poverty alleviation is just a numbers game, and the poor are still poor: “Poverty alleviation may also be a numbers game, because every year the state will have a large amount of subsidies, such as poverty subsidies, aid, etc., this subsidy will not be given later, which can save the expenditure on poverty alleviation. Specifically whether the common people are poor or not out of poverty, I don’t think it’s a question of their consideration.”
The poor are still struggling to survive
In an interview with this station, Ms. Liu, a resident of Shenyang, said that many people can’t find jobs, including university graduates, and the burden on families is so heavy that the state can no longer help poor households: “The whole treasury is out of money. All in. Your government doesn’t do any welfare for the people at all.”
Wuhan resident Gaoxin said he has no social security, health insurance or occupation, and he should be a poor household, but it’s not up to him to decide: “If they say I’m poor, I’m poor, and if they say I’m not poor, I’m not poor. At the end of the year, he said let’s eliminate (the poor). Originally, I still had the low income insurance, but later it was abolished. Now it’s no low-income insurance, no social security, no medical insurance, and no source of income.”
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