China’s Elimination of Absolute Poverty Is a Bright Spot in the World

According to international standards, from 1981 to 2015, China reduced its impoverished population by 868 million, while the global impoverished population fell by nearly 1.17 billion; China accounted for 74% of the world’s people lifted out of poverty. By 2016, the population in mainland China living below the poverty line had decreased by 99.1%. By the end of 2020, China had eliminated absolute poverty. China’s achievements in poverty alleviation have become one of the most noteworthy bright spots in economic and social development in the world today.

根据国际标准，从1981年到2015年，中国贫困人口减少了8.68亿人，而全球贫困人口减少了近11.7亿人，中国占世界摆脱贫困人口的74%。到2016年，中国大陆生活在贫困线以下的人口减少了99.1%。到2020年底，中国消除了绝对贫困现象。中国的脱贫成就已成为当今世界最值得关注的一道经济社会发展亮丽风景线。

For many years, Western circles have held divergent views on the development of socialism with Chinese characteristics; yet today, the West has reached a rare consensus on China’s achievements in poverty alleviation in the New Era. In October 2021, United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres praised China’s accomplishments in eliminating poverty and called on the international community to jointly address the various problems facing the present era, especially the COVID-19 pandemic. Guterres thanked China for its role in formulating and implementing the Sustainable Development Goals and noted that this Asian country has performed outstandingly in its commitment to freeing humanity from poverty in all its forms, a matter of great significance.

多年来，西方各界对中国特色社会主义发展的认识存在分歧；但如今，西方对新时代中国脱贫攻坚的成就罕见地达成了共识。2021年10月，联合国秘书长安东尼奥·古特雷斯盛赞中国在消除贫困方面取得的成就，并呼吁国际社会携手应对当今时代面临的各种问题，尤其是新冠肺炎的大流行。古特雷斯感谢中国在制定和实施可持续发展目标方面发挥的作用，并指出这个亚洲国家在致力于使人类摆脱一切形式的贫困方面表现突出，其意义重大。

This assessment is very reasonable, and we can contrast it with the weakening of rights experienced by Western workers in recent decades. In the 1960s and 1970s, to counter high inflation and stagnant profit rates, Western capital forces intervened in labor costs, implementing measures such as wage cuts and attacks on trade unions, tearing up the post-World War II agreement between labor and capital that had once been reached. This became a turning point for the sharp increase in inequality and poverty in developed capitalist countries. Since then, neoliberalism has held sway, intensifying its erosion of the various rights to improved working and living conditions that Western workers had gained in the three decades after World War II.

这种说法是非常有道理的，我们可以将其与近几十年来西方劳动者遭遇的权利弱化进行对比。20世纪60到70年代，为对抗高通胀和利润率的停滞，西方资本力量对劳动力成本进行干预，实施降低工资、打击工会等措施，二战后劳资双方一度达成的协定被资方撕毁。这成为发达资本主义国家的不平等和贫困急剧增加的转折点。自此，新自由主义大行其道，变本加厉地损害西方劳动者在二战后30年间所获得的改善工作生活条件的各种权利。

China began implementing reform and opening up in the late 1970s. In rural areas, China implemented the “household contract responsibility system” reform, achieving increased agricultural output and higher farmer incomes. China also explored a socialist market economy, encouraged the development of private enterprises, and introduced foreign advanced technology and investment. The development of China’s township and village enterprises was particularly noteworthy; they made important contributions to the rational use of resources and the absorption of surplus rural labor. While vast numbers of farmers entered cities for work and shared in the fruits of economic development brought by reform and opening up, the original collective ownership of rural land was also preserved, leaving them with no worries about the future.

中国在20世纪70年代末开始实施改革开放。在农村，中国实施“包产到户”的改革，实现了农业增产、农民增收。中国还探索社会主义市场经济，鼓励民营企业发展，并引入外国先进技术和投资。中国乡镇企业的发展尤为引人注目，乡镇企业在合理利用资源、吸收农村剩余劳动力方面作出了重要贡献。广大农民在进城务工、参与共享改革开放带来的经济发展成果的同时，原有的农村土地集体所有制也得到了保留，并无后顾之忧。

The strategy of promoting rural development, agricultural development, and farmer development was key to China’s victory in the fight against poverty. China made full use of the market economy to open up the more backward inland rural areas to the outside world, with the “visible hand” reasonably supervising the positive role of the “invisible hand.” I do not agree with some Western scholars who define China’s approach to economic development and poverty alleviation as “neoliberalism with Chinese characteristics.” In this regard, the words of Nobel Prize-winning American economist Joseph Stiglitz may better reveal the essence of the matter: the Chinese government has never confused the ends—the well-being of the people—with the means to achieve them. The means referred to here should be the development of a socialist market economy. In other words, China did not adopt the “shock therapy” promoted by Washington in many countries around the world; instead, it formulated and implemented reforms based on its own national conditions, developed a socialist market economy, achieved remarkable results in multiple fields, and improved the lives of over a billion people. These development achievements should not be overlooked or denied.

推动农村、农业、农民发展的战略，是中国赢得脱贫斗争胜利的关键。中国充分利用市场经济，推动内陆更为落后的农村地区对外开放，“看得见的手”合理监督“看不见的手”发挥积极作用。我并不赞同西方有些学者将中国发展经济、应对贫困的方式定义为“具有中国特色的新自由主义”。就此而言，获诺贝尔奖的美国经济学家约瑟夫·斯蒂格利茨的话，或许更能说明问题的本质：中国政府从来没有混淆目的——人民的福祉和实现目的的手段。这里所说的手段，应是发展社会主义市场经济。换言之，中国没有采取华盛顿在世界多国推行的“休克疗法”，而是根据本国国情制定并实施了改革，发展社会主义市场经济，在多个领域取得了令人瞩目的成绩，改善了十几亿人民的生活。这些发展成就不应该被忽视和否定。

Western scholars should delve into the details of China’s poverty alleviation efforts; only then can they lift the “mysterious veil” of China’s poverty reduction and thereby eliminate many misunderstandings. According to the United Nations Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI), which measures ten dimensions including health, education, and infrastructure services, the connotation of poverty is multifaceted, involving various aspects of civil and social rights. To promote the realization of these indicators, the United Nations issued the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Although there are still more than seven years until 2030, given the current complex international economic and political background, achieving this development goal worldwide remains very difficult. Yet China has already achieved the poverty reduction targets of this Agenda ten years ahead of schedule. China’s poverty alleviation policies ensure that the poor have sources of income, security for food, clothing, and housing, and access to basic medical care and free compulsory education. Clearly, China’s poverty reduction is not simply about solving income problems; it provides people with multiple survival guarantees and development opportunities. Precisely because of this, China’s approach to eliminating extreme poverty is to endow impoverished areas and individuals with the ability to “generate blood” themselves, rather than simply “transfusing blood.”

西方学者应深入中国脱贫攻坚的细节，这样才能揭开中国脱贫的“神秘面纱”，进而消除诸多误解。根据联合国制定的多维贫困指数（MPI），即衡量健康、教育、基础设施服务等10个维度的指标，贫困的内涵是多重的，涉及公民权利和社会权利的方方面面。为推动这些指标的实现，联合国发布了《2030年可持续发展议程》。尽管现在距离2030年尚有7年多时间，但鉴于当前复杂的国际经济政治背景，在全世界实现这一发展目标的难度依然很大，而中国却已提前10年实现了该议程的减贫目标。中国的脱贫政策确保贫困者收入有来源，衣食住行有保障，基本医疗、免费义务教育有保证。显然，中国的脱贫并不是简单地解决收入问题，而是给予人民多重生存保障和发展机会。正因为如此，中国消除极端贫困的方式是赋予贫困地区和贫困者“造血”能力，而非单纯地“输血”。

In November 2013, General Secretary Xi Jinping visited and held discussions in Shibadong Village, Hunan Province. In our view, this marked the official launch of the grand undertaking of “targeted poverty alleviation.” This undertaking has a scientific, rigorous, and complete procedure: identifying poor households, clarifying the persons responsible for advancing poverty alleviation work, and taking appropriate measures to prevent those lifted out of poverty from falling back into it. China established a clear information system and management system for poverty alleviation to effectively supervise and manage the different stages of this undertaking. Whether it is governments at all levels, grassroots self-governing organizations, or local residents, all can participate in the poverty alleviation effort in an open and transparent manner. In 2014, 800,000 grassroots cadres in China’s impoverished areas went into villages and households, identifying 128,000 impoverished villages and 89.62 million impoverished people. Thereafter, they continuously verified and corrected information on the impoverished population based on actual conditions, using advanced digital technology.

2013年11月，习近平总书记前往湖南省十八洞村考察座谈。在我们看来，这标志着“精准扶贫”这一宏伟事业正式启动。这项事业具备科学严谨完备的程序：识别贫困家庭、明确推进脱贫工作的负责人、采取恰当措施防止脱贫者返贫。中国为脱贫攻坚创建了一个清晰的信息系统和管理系统，以对这项事业的不同阶段进行有效监督管理。无论是各级政府，还是基层自治机构和当地居民，都能以公开透明的方式参与到脱贫事业中。2014年，中国贫困地区80万基层干部进村入户，识别12.8万个贫困村、8962万贫困人口。此后，他们不断根据现实情况，利用先进的数字技术对贫困人口的信息进行核查和修正。

Clearly, the process of poverty alleviation in China in the New Era is also the process of the Communist Party of China advancing the modernization of its national governance system and governance capacity. China’s poverty alleviation plan was formulated through large-scale mobilization by the CPC and Chinese governments at all levels, pooling wisdom and gathering broad input, and thus achieved its expected goals. Both the victory in poverty alleviation and the modernization of the national governance system and governance capacity depend on organization. Yet without organizers, there is no organization. The CPC dispatched 255,000 work teams and organized 3 million well-trained cadres to be stationed in impoverished villages, fulfilling its solemn commitment to the people. By 2021, the CPC had over 95.1 million members and approximately 4.9 million primary-level Party organizations. Ask yourself: what organization is more powerful and more excellent than the Communist Party of China?

显然，新时代中国脱贫攻坚的进程也是中国共产党推进国家治理体系和治理能力现代化的进程。中国的脱贫方案是中国共产党和中国各级政府进行大规模动员、汇聚众智、集思广益制定的，也因此达到了预期目标。无论是脱贫攻坚的胜利，还是国家治理体系和治理能力现代化建设，都离不开组织的作用。然而，没有组织者就没有组织。中国共产党选派25.5万个工作队，组织300万训练有素的干部进驻贫困村，兑现了其对人民的庄严承诺。到2021年，中国共产党拥有超过9510万党员和约490万个基层党组织。试问，有哪个组织比中国共产党更强大、更优良呢？

Today, China’s goal of building a moderately prosperous society in all respects has been achieved. This is completely different from the consumerist society under Western elite governance. In China’s moderately prosperous society in all respects, the people’s needs for better material and cultural life will be more fully met, and their aspirations for more complete rule of law, more thorough democracy, and safer environmental conditions will also receive a positive response.

如今，中国全面建成小康社会的目标已经实现。这与西方精英治理下的消费主义社会完全不同。在中国的全面小康社会中，人民的物质生活和精神生活需求将得到更好满足，人民对更完善的法治、更完备的民主和更安全的环境条件的愿望也将得到积极回应。

At the 19th National Congress of the CPC, General Secretary Xi Jinping clearly stated that socialism with Chinese characteristics has entered a New Era, and the principal contradiction facing Chinese society has evolved into the contradiction between the people’s ever-growing needs for a better life and unbalanced and inadequate development. Clearly, the collective leadership of the CPC has an exceptionally clear understanding of the problems of imbalance and inadequacy in the country’s economic and social development. The CPC will convene its 20th National Congress in October 2022, a congress of great importance on the new journey toward the second centenary goal, and it will scientifically plan the future development of the cause of socialism with Chinese characteristics.

在中共十九大上，习近平总书记明确提出，中国特色社会主义进入新时代，中国社会的主要矛盾已经转化为人民日益增长的美好生活需要和不平衡不充分的发展之间的矛盾。显然，中国共产党的领导集体对国家经济社会发展中存在的不平衡、不充分问题，有着异常清醒的认识。中国共产党将在2022年10月召开党的二十大，这是中国向第二个百年奋斗目标前进的新征程中一次十分重要的大会，将为中国特色社会主义事业的未来发展进行科学谋划。

In contrast, in the West, the impoverishment of the masses is intensifying, with the scale of child and elderly poverty being particularly alarming. Currently, 5 million people in Italy have fallen into poverty, and in the United States the figure is over 40 million and still increasing. Considering the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as the world economic and financial turmoil caused by the Russia-Ukraine conflict and the impact of Western sanctions on the global trade system, the West and other parts of the world under the shadow of its hegemony will become even more unequal and more unjust.

反观西方，大众的贫困化在加剧，儿童和老年贫困人口规模尤其令人担忧。目前，在意大利有500万人陷入贫困，在美国这个数字为4000多万人，且还在不断增加。考虑到新冠肺炎大流行，以及俄乌冲突导致的世界经济和金融动荡、西方制裁对全球贸易体系的影响，西方及笼罩在其霸权阴影下的世界其他地方将会变得更加不平等、更加不公正。

(The author is a professor at the University of Rome, Italy; translation by Li Kaixuan, Distinguished Research Fellow of

（作者系意大利罗马大学教授；翻译：李凯旋，中国社会科学院习近平新时代中国特色社会主义思想研究中心特约研究员、中国社会科学院马克思主义研究院副研究员）

Online editor: Zhang Jian

网络编辑：张剑