BEIJING, China – The ruling Communist Party marks the official end of extreme poverty in China with a propaganda campaign that celebrates President Xi Jinping’s role, as part of a larger campaign to cement his image as a historic leader who gives the country its place on the world stage.
Chinese propaganda associates President Xi with various successes in the country, including the fight against the coronavirus, the rise of China as a creator of technology and the successful moon landing last December.
The party announced in November, quite quietly, that no one in China was living in extreme poverty anymore. Ten years ago, it was estimated that about 100 million Chinese survived on incomes of less than CAN $ 450 per year.
The massive propaganda campaign launched this month is filling the pages of official dailies and radio airwaves with news about the fight against poverty and the role of President Xi.
It is recalled that Mr. Xi, shortly after taking power in 2012, implemented policies that allowed China to eliminate extreme poverty ten years earlier than the 2030 target put forward by the World Bank.
A report published by the official party daily this week mentions Mr. Xi’s full name and his title as party leader no less than 121 times.
All of this offers the party a political trophy as part of the celebrations this year of the centenary of its founding in 1921. It also comes as the Chinese economy starts to accelerate again in the wake of the coronavirus, as the United States, the ‘Europe and other countries are still fighting the pandemic.
The party has stressed that it has succeeded in eradicating extreme poverty even though it had to shut down much of the economy in early 2020 to tackle the coronavirus.
On Thursday, President Xi said the fight against poverty is a testament to the effectiveness of the ruling party system. He spoke of a “miracle that history will remember” at a ceremony in which he awarded medals and prizes to ten individuals and ten groups described as “role models” in the fight against poverty.
He praised the reforms of the past decades which have made China the world’s second-largest economy and a middle-class society, but he did not mention the names of any other leaders or previous leaders.
The event gives Xi, who has wielded more personal power than anyone since Communist China’s founder Mao Zedong, yet another opportunity to cement his historical significance.
Abroad, President Xi pursues an aggressive policy that has accentuated China’s diplomatic influence, but muddied its relations with its neighbors, with the United States and with Europe.
Foreign observers believe that the official elimination of extreme poverty could allow Xi to bail out a power they say has been weakened by the coronavirus pandemic.
Anti-poverty campaigns also aim to close the politically explosive gap that exists between the elite who have benefited the most from economic reforms and the poor majority in the country.
Xi’s predecessor, Hu Jintao, and former Premier Wen Jiabao had started the process by increasing spending on rural schools and health care, in order to spread prosperity fueled by exports across the country. enjoys the east coast of the country.
China defines extreme poverty as incomes of C $ 2.15 per person per day. This is below the C $ 2.40 threshold cited by the World Bank, but China attributes the gap to the cost of living in rural areas.
In some areas, ethnic minorities have been displaced from remote valleys to new towns. Elsewhere, officials have gone door to door to enroll poor families in vocational training. They were also offered loans and other assistance to start a business.
Nearly ten million people have moved into new homes and the homes of 27 million others have been renovated, Xi said. He says the government has spent a total of almost CAN $ 320 billion.
The average annual income of “rural poor” fell from CAN $ 450 in 2015 to CAN $ 2,115 last year, according to the official China news agency.
Some experts believe, however, that China may be exaggerating its successes, as it continues to use the standards of the poorest countries as it has moved to middle-income status. In such countries, the World Bank sets the poverty line at incomes of CAN $ 7 per person per day.
In a January report for the Brookings Institution, former World Bank member Indermit Gill argues that China’s standard of living is now comparable to that of the United States in the 1960s.
But if we use the average income in the United States at that time as a benchmark, he adds, up to 90% of Chinese would still be poor.
“If our numbers are right, China is years, if not decades, behind,” he said.
– Par Joe MacDonald, The Associated Press
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